Black and White, or Shades of Gray? How Exposure to Facial Variability Influences Race Essentialism
Grunberg, Rebecca Lee
2012
- Race essentialism is the belief that racial categories are biologically based, immutable, discrete, and informative. Holding such beliefs has been shown to have a variety of negative consequences, including increased stereotype endorsement, increased prejudice, and decreased interest in interracial interactions (Keller, 2005; Jayaratne et al, 2006; Williams & Eberhardt, 2008). This past research ... read morehas experimentally manipulated race essentialism by presenting participants with written arguments for or against race essentialism. The present studies investigate an alternative manipulation of race essentialism: mere exposure to faces. In study 1, participants exposed to a set of faces of prototypical phenotype (creating distinct racial boundaries) had a higher endorsement of race essentialism than did participants exposed to a set of faces of variable phenotype (blurring racial boundaries). Study 2 provides evidence that perceptually blurring boundaries only reduces race essentialism if there are no social cues to category division. Finally, in study 3, participants exposed to faces of prototypical phenotype were more emotionally disengaged after reading a passage about racial inequalities. These studies provide evidence that lay theories about race can be affected by passive everyday exposure.read less
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