Economic Anxiety? The interaction of phenotypicality and resource scarcity on threat-driven visual attention to Black men
Perry, Jennifer.
2019
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Through visual attention we are able to construct our subjective
experience of the world, so identifying to what people attend is informative. A
vast literature has demonstrated that stimuli perceived as threatening elicit
distinct attentional patterns. As such, previous research in social psychology has
shown that due to higher perceived threat, Black (versus White) male faces capture
early ... read moreattention. There may, however, exist substantial within-race variation in
perceived threat, as dark-skinned (versus light-skinned) Black men are generally
associated with more negative characteristics. Indeed, in our prior work (Perry et
al., in prep; conducted online) participants rated 48 Black male faces on
perceived phenotypicality and threat. Dark-skinned faces were rated as more
phenotypical and threatening than the light-skinned faces, despite having
identical facial features. Furthermore, we found that attentional patterns to
Black men differ as a function of skin tone. People avoided looking at
dark-skinned Black male faces, evidenced by longer response times to correctly
indicate a probe letter in a visual dot-probe task when the probe appeared in
dark-skinned versus light-skinned locations. Perceived threat of the faces
moderated this attentional pattern: avoidance of dark faces was eliminated as
perceived threat of the dark- relative to the light-skinned faces increased. In
the current investigation, we continued to examine the role that threat plays in
guiding attention to Black male faces. Experiment 1 served as an in-lab
replication the attentional avoidance effect as reported by Perry et al. (in prep)
with additional physiological measures to attain indicators of perceived threat in
real time. We did not replicate the pattern of attentional avoidance to
dark-skinned Black faces found in our prior work: participants took equally as
long to identify probe letters appearing in dark-skinned locations as they did to
identify probe letters appearing in light-skinned locations. However, it is likely
that several factors of the in-lab environment, as well as differences between our
online and in-lab samples, contributed to non-replication of this effect. The
remaining experiments explored how threat derived from target characteristics
(racial phenotypicality) is influenced by situationally-derived threat (economic
resource scarcity). Experiment 2 (conducted online) examined how resource scarcity
contributes to differing perceptions of phenotypicality and threat of Black men.
Participants were first randomly assigned to a resource scarcity condition or a
control condition and then rated dark- and light-skinned Black male faces on
indicators of phenotypicality and threat. Replicating our prior work, dark-skinned
faces were rated as more phenotypical and threatening than the light-skinned
faces. Furthermore, economic resource scarcity condition did not moderate
perceptions of phenotypicality, but it did affect threat perceptions of dark-
versus light-skinned Black men. Finally, Experiment 3 (conducted online) tested
whether experiencing resource scarcity may result in differing patterns of
attention to dark- versus light-skinned Black male faces. With this sample, the
pattern of attentional avoidance of the dark-skinned faces did, indeed, replicate.
The moderation of threat ratings on attention matched the pattern found in our
prior work: as the dark-skinned faces were perceived as more and more threatening
relative to the light-skinned faces, the magnitude of the attentional avoidance of
the dark-skinned faces diminished. Contrary to our predictions, resource scarcity
did not moderate attention to dark- and light-skinned Black men. However,
endorsement of zero-sum beliefs did affect attention to Black men, with low
endorsement associated with attentional avoidance to dark-skinned faces and high
endorsement associated with attentional vigilance to dark-skinned faces. This
pattern was consistent with our original prediction regarding the moderating
relationship of resource scarcity and attention to dark- and light-skinned Black
men. Considering together the results from our prior work, as well as the results
from the present experiments, the majority of this work provides evidence of a
pattern of attentional avoidance of dark-skinned Black male faces, until those
faces are perceived as particularly threatening. This result contradicts a great
deal of research on the relationship between perceived threat and visual
attention. This may suggest that relevance, rather than threat, is what more
broadly guides perceivers' attention to Black faces of varying phenotypicality.
Dark-skinned Black male faces, by default, may not be perceived as relevant enough
to attend to unless they are perceived to be particularly threatening.
Implications for intergroup social cognition and intergroup interactions are
discussed.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2019.
Submitted to the Dept. of Psychology.
Advisors: Keith Maddox, and Heather Urry.
Committee: Tiffany Ito, and Nathan Ward.
Keywords: Social psychology, Cognitive psychology, and Psychology.read less - ID:
- 0c483x54p
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