Facial resemblance to emotions: Group differences, impression effects, and race stereotypes.

The authors used connectionist modeling to extend previous research on emotion overgeneralization effects. Study 1 demonstrated that neutral expression male faces objectively resemble angry expressions more than female faces do, female faces objectively resemble surprise expressions more than male faces do, White faces objectively resemble angry expressions more than Black or Korean faces do, and Black faces objectively resemble happy and surprise expressions more than White faces do. Study 2 demonstrated that objective resemblance to emotion expressions influences trait impressions even when statistically controlling possible confounding influences of attractiveness and babyfaceness. It further demonstrated that emotion overgeneralization is moderated by face race and that racial differences in emotion resemblance contribute to White perceivers’ stereotypes of Blacks and Asians. These results suggest that intergroup relations may be strained not only by cultural stereotypes but also by adaptive responses to emotion expressions that are overgeneralized to groups whose faces subtly resemble particular emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Having an Open Mind: The Impact of Openness to Experience on Interracial Attitudes and Impression Formation.

This article considers how Openness to Experience may mitigate the negative stereotyping of Black people by White perceivers. As expected, White individuals who scored relatively high on Openness to Experience exhibited less prejudice according to self-report measures of explicit racial attitudes. Further, White participants who rated themselves higher on Openness to Experience formed more favorable impressions of a fictitious Black individual. Finally, after observing informal interviews of White and Black targets, White participants who were more open formed more positive impressions of Black interviewees, particularly on dimensions that correspond to negative racial stereotypes. The effect of Openness to Experience was relatively stronger for judgments of Black interviewees than for judgments of White interviewees. Taken together these findings suggest that explicit racial attitudes and impression formation may depend on the individual characteristics of the perceiver, particularly whether she or he is predisposed to consider stereotype-disconfirming information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial stereotyping on television: A comparison of the behavior of both Black and White television characters.

Investigated the behavior of Black and White characters on comedy programs to determine whether there were differences in their portrayal. It was hypothesized that Black characters would differ from White ones along several dimensions (e.g., activity level and dominance) and that White characters on Black programs would behave differently from Whites on White or mixed programs. Three episodes each of Black, White, and mixed comedy programs were videotaped. Raters tallied the behavior of 110 different characters on 12 types of behavior. A 2-way ANOVA, Sex by Race, indicated that racial stereotypes and sex role stereotypes were the basis for character portrayals on TV. The differences between Black female and White female characters seemed crucial to the depiction of the races. In addition, the portrayal of White characters on Black programs was negative. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial and behavioral cues in Black and White children's perceptions of ambiguously aggressive acts.

Examined the way in which the interpretation of ambiguous social behavior is influenced by racial stereotypes and cultural differences. 40 Black and 40 White 6th-grade males were shown a variety of ambiguously aggressive behaviors performed by Black and White stimulus figures. As predicted, both Black and White Ss rated these behaviors as more mean and threatening when the perpetrator was Black than when he was White. In contrast, ratings of personal characteristics were in general determined by individual behavior rather than by group stereotypes, although Blacks, whether they were the perpetrator or the recipient of the behaviors, were rated as stronger than their White counterparts. Cultural differences between S groups were apparent in the greater tendency of the White Ss to read threat into ambiguously aggressive behaviors involving no physical contact and to assume that the perpetrators of such behaviors were stronger than the recipients. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Not so black and white: Memory for ambiguous group members.

Exponential increases in multiracial identities, expected over the next century, create a conundrum for perceivers accustomed to classifying people as their own- or other-race. The current research examines how perceivers resolve this dilemma with regard to the own-race bias. The authors hypothesized that perceivers are not motivated to include ambiguous-race individuals in the in-group and therefore have some difficulty remembering these individuals. Both racially ambiguous and other-race faces were misremembered more often than own-race faces (Study 1), though memory for ambiguous faces was improved among perceivers motivated to include biracial individuals in the in-group (Study 2). Racial labels assigned to racially ambiguous faces determined memory for these faces, suggesting that uncertainty provides the motivational context for discounting ambiguous faces in memory (Study 3). Finally, an inclusion motivation fostered cognitive associations between racially ambiguous faces and the in-group. Moreover, the extent to which perceivers associated racially ambiguous faces with the in-group predicted memory for ambiguous faces and accounted for the impact of motivation on memory (Study 4). Thus, memory for biracial individuals seems to involve a flexible person construal process shaped by motivational factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal beliefs and cultural stereotypes about racial characteristics.

Social stereotypes may be expressed as personal beliefs about the characteristics of a group or as beliefs about the predominant cultural view of a group. In a study with a full intergroup design, Black and White participants rated Black and White racial groups. Results supported 3 sets of predictions derived from a projection model of stereotyping. First, participants' personal beliefs predicted their ratings of cultural stereotypes even when the group averages of personal beliefs and cultural stereotypes were statistically controlled. Second, interrater agreement in stereotype ratings was substantial for both rating tasks. Third, members of both groups underestimated how favorably their own group was rated by members of their respective out-group. Implications of the findings for the mental organizations of stereotypes, their measurement, and their consequences for social behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering race: White racial identity attitudes and two aspects of social memory.

This study investigated whether the White racial identity statuses proposed by J. E. Helms (1984, 1990, 1995) could explain individual differences in how racial stereotypes influence memory for race-related information as measured by memory sensitivity and response bias on a recognition memory task. Participants were 197 White undergraduate and graduate students who read 3 stimulus paragraphs embedded with Black and White stereotypical items. The race of the target character in the stimulus was randomly reported to be Black or White. After a 1-week interval, participants completed a measure of recognition memory, as well as a measure of White racial identity attitudes. Results offer support for the hypothesis that the White racial identity statuses influence how racial stereotypes affect information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deficits in other-race face recognition: No evidence for encoding-based effects.

The other-race effect (ORE) in face recognition is typically observed in tasks which require long-term memory. Several studies, however, have found the effect early in face encoding (Lindsay, Jack, & Christian, 1991; Walker & Hewstone, 2006). In 6 experiments, with over 300 participants, we found no evidence that the recognition deficit associated with the ORE reflects deficits in immediate encoding. In Experiment 1, with a study-to-test retention interval of 4 min, participants were better able to recognise White faces, relative to Asian faces. Experiment 1 also validated the use of computer-generated faces in subsequent experiments. In Experiments 2 through 4, performance was virtually identical to Asian and White faces in match-to-sample, immediate recognition. In Experiment 5, decreasing target-foil similarity and disrupting the retention interval with trivia questions elicited a re-emergence of the ORE. Experiments 6A and 6B replicated this effect, and showed that memory for Asian faces was particularly susceptible to distraction; White faces were recognised equally well, regardless of trivia questions during the retention interval. The recognition deficit in the ORE apparently emerges from retention or retrieval deficits, not differences in immediate perceptual processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying the attractor field model to social cognition: Perceptual discrimination is facilitated, but memory is impaired for faces displaying evaluatively congruent expressions.

A new model of mental representation is applied to social cognition: the attractor field model. Using the model, the authors predicted and found a perceptual advantage but a memory disadvantage for faces displaying evaluatively congruent expressions. In Experiment 1, participants completed a same/different perceptual discrimination task involving morphed pairs of angry-to-happy Black and White faces. Pairs of faces displaying evaluatively incongruent expressions (i.e., happy Black, angry White) were more likely to be labeled as similar and were less likely to be accurately discriminated from one another than faces displaying evaluatively congruent expressions (i.e., angry Black, happy White). Experiment 2 replicated this finding and showed that objective discriminability of stimuli moderated the impact of attractor field effects on perceptual discrimination accuracy. In Experiment 3, participants completed a recognition task for angry and happy Black and White faces. Consistent with the attractor field model, memory accuracy was better for faces displaying evaluatively incongruent expressions. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial categorization of faces: The ambiguous race face effect.

Accusations of discriminatory treatment of minority persons in the criminal justice system create a need for policy and procedure development to create real and perceived equal treatment. A facial recognition deficit among law enforcement officers and witnesses for persons of another "race" contributes to unequal treatment of minority group members. This article demonstrates the other-race effect in an unusual context, reveals theoretical weaknesses, reveals the role of categorical processes in the phenomenon, and discusses policy implications. Experiment 1, based on feature and trait ratings, demonstrates that identical and racially ambiguous faces with different racial markers (hair) are perceived according to the marker. Experiment 2 demonstrates an other-race recognition effect using these faces. A feature acting as a racial marker can cause a face to be perceived and remembered differently. Other-race faces are perceived categorically, which drives the recognition process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race, arousal, attention, exposure and delay: An examination of factors moderating face recognition.

A large percentage of people recently exonerated by DNA evidence were imprisoned on the basis of faulty eyewitness identification. Many of these cases involved victims and suspects of different races. Two studies examined the recognition of Hispanic and Black target faces by Hispanic participants under nonoptimal viewing conditions. When viewing time decreased, recognition performance for same- and other-race faces systematically shifted downward. Recognition accuracy for faces of both races decreased under conditions of high negative arousal and attention load; however, recognition of same-race faces was differentially affected by attention distractors. Face recognition accuracy was not affected by a delay between initial presentation of the faces and the face recognition test. An understanding of how recognition of other-race persons differs from that of same-race persons can assist by reducing misidentifications and ensuring that the perpetrator rather than an innocent person is imprisoned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's face recognition memory: More evidence for the cross-race effect.

It is well established that own-race faces are recognized more accurately than cross-race faces. However, there are mixed results regarding the developmental consistency of the cross-race effect. White and Black kindergarten children, 3rd graders, and young adults viewed a Black and a White target individual. One day later, recognition memory for each target was tested with a 6-person lineup. The interaction of race of participant by race of target face on Ag scores was significant, demonstrating an overall cross-race effect. The 2nd-order interaction with age did not approach significance: for each age group, own-race identification was more accurate than cross-race identification. The age consistency of the cross-race effect in light of the significant main effect of age suggests quantitative but not qualitative differences in face memory processing at various ages. For children, as well as adults, own-race faces are recognized more accurately than cross-race faces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of racial similarity and interviewer intimacy in a peer counseling analogue.

The effects of the intimacy of an interviewer's disclosure and the racial composition of a dyad on interviewees' liking for an interviewer, impressions of the interviewer, and subsequent self-disclosure were examined in a peer counseling analogue. We predicted and found that intimate disclosure by an interviewer is especially useful in eliciting self-disclosure from Black subjects. Furthermore, we predicted and found that differences in liking for and impressions of intimate and nonintimate interviewers would be particularly pronounced in those dyads in which the interviewer was White and the interviewee was Black with greater liking for and more positive impressions of the intimately disclosing interviewer. We discuss the implications of these results for the reported tendency for Blacks to terminate counseling prematurely and to disclose less than Whites in counseling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does perceived race affect discrimination and recognition of ambiguous-race faces? A test of the sociocognitive hypothesis.

Discrimination and recognition are often poorer for other-race than own-race faces. These other-race effects (OREs) have traditionally been attributed to reduced perceptual expertise, resulting from more limited experience, with other-race faces. However, recent findings suggest that sociocognitive factors, such as reduced motivation to individuate other-race faces, may also contribute. If the sociocognitive hypothesis is correct, then it should be possible to alter discrimination and memory performance for identical faces by altering their perceived race. We made identical ambiguous-race morphed faces look either Asian or Caucasian by presenting them in Caucasian or Asian face contexts, respectively. However, this perceived-race manipulation had no effect on either discrimination (Experiment 1) or memory (Experiment 2) for the ambiguous-race faces, despite the presence of the usual OREs in discrimination and recognition of unambiguous Asian and Caucasian faces in our participant population. These results provide no support for the sociocognitive hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race relations on prime time television.

Conducted content analyses of 63 hrs of prime-time TV broadcasting to evaluate the medium's messages with respect to cross-racial (CR) relationships. Findings reveal that Black appearances constituted less than 9% of the human appearance time in product commercials and programing, with CR interactions constituting less than 2% of human appearance time in this sample. Ratings of the quality of these interaction episodes indicate that the CR relationships were portrayed as cooperative but relatively formalized. As compared to a sample of White–White relationships selected at random from the same TV programs, relationships among Black and White characters were less multifaceted and evinced less intimacy, less shared decision making, and fewer romantic implications. These differences were in large part a function of the disproportionate representation of Black–White relationships in job-related situational contexts. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Searching for differences in race: Is there evidence for preferential detection of other-race faces?

Previous research has suggested that like animal and social fear-relevant stimuli, other-race faces (African American) are detected preferentially in visual search. Three experiments using Chinese or Indonesian faces as other-race faces yielded the opposite pattern of results: faster detection of same-race faces among other-race faces. This apparently inconsistent pattern of results was resolved by showing that Asian and African American faces are detected preferentially in tasks that have small stimulus sets and employ fixed target searches. Asian and African American other-race faces are found slower among Caucasian face backgrounds if larger stimulus sets are used in tasks with a variable mapping of stimulus to background or target. Thus, preferential detection of other-race faces was not found under task conditions in which preferential detection of animal and social fear-relevant stimuli is evident. Although consistent with the view that same-race faces are processed in more detail than other-race faces, the current findings suggest that other-race faces do not draw attention preferentially. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor intake judgments about White and Black clients in a university counseling center.

Compared counselor intake judgments about White and Black clients at a university counseling center. 1,078 White and 42 Black clients were randomly assigned to 1 of 13 counselors (11 Whites, 2 Blacks), who rated the clients on 11 variables. Counselors reported significantly higher ratings only on the judged potential for change in Black clients when compared with that in White clients. Ratings in the type and severity of presenting problem, client anxiety level, ease of expression, motivation, realism of goals, and physical appearance were not significantly different. Counselors' feelings about clients and the predicted number of counseling sessions were also similar for Black and White clients. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Being the best: Preliminary results from a national study of the achievement of prominent Black and White women.

Examined the achieving styles, coping strategies, gender roles, and feminist attitudes of 125 prominent, highly achieving Black and White women (mean age 53.5 yrs) in the US. Multivariate analyses of variance were used to examine race differences and similarities; canonical regression analyses (MANOVAs) were used to examine relationships among achieving styles and the other sets of variables. Both similarities and differences between Black and White women were found, and achieving styles were significantly related to the other variables. Strengths, limitations, and implications of the study for counseling are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of professor ethnicity and gender on student evaluations: Judged before met.

Ethnic minority academicians face a number of challenges in the “ivory tower.” One set of challenges arises from the racial stereotypes that others hold, and the current research investigates the stereotypes held by students before they even meet such professors. After providing college preparatory students with a CV of a professor (differing in their race—White, Black, or Asian; their gender—male or female; and their academic discipline—Science or Humanities), students evaluated the professor on measures of competence, legitimacy, and interpersonal skills. We found that students evaluated Black professors to be significantly less competent and legitimate than their White and Asian counterparts. Both Black and Asian professors were judged to have significantly less interpersonal skills than White professors. No gender main effects emerged. Professors in science were judged to be more competent and legitimate than professors in humanities. Very few interactions surfaced. We discuss our results in terms of previous stereotype research and the implications our results have for further compounding the challenges that Black professors face in academia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)