Essentialism and Racial Bias Jointly Contribute to the Categorization of Multiracial Individuals

Psychological Science
Arnold K HoSusan A Gelman

Abstract

Categorizations of multiracial individuals provide insight into the psychological mechanisms driving social stratification, but few studies have explored the interplay of cognitive and motivational underpinnings of these categorizations. In the present study, we integrated research on racial essentialism (i.e., the belief that race demarcates unobservable and immutable properties) and negativity bias (i.e., the tendency to weigh negative entities more heavily than positive entities) to explain why people might exhibit biases in the categorization of multiracial individuals. As theorized, racial essentialism, both dispositional (Study 1) and experimentally induced (Study 2), led to the categorization of Black-White multiracial individuals as Black, but only among individuals evaluating Black people more negatively than White people. These findings demonstrate how fundamental cognitive and motivational biases interact to influence the categorization of multiracial individuals.

References

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Citations

Jul 26, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Susan A Gelman, Steven O Roberts
May 10, 2018·Psychological Science·Alexander Noyes, Frank C Keil
Sep 16, 2017·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Steven O RobertsSusan A Gelman
Oct 31, 2018·The Journal of Social Psychology·Sarah E GaitherSamuel R Sommers
May 26, 2020·Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·Arnold K HoJacqueline M Chen
Sep 12, 2017·Journal of Cognition and Development : Official Journal of the Cognitive Development Society·Steven Othello Roberts, Susan Gelman
Jul 25, 2020·Behavior Research Methods·Jacqueline M ChenYeseul Nam
Dec 4, 2016·Cognitive Science·Steven O RobertsArnold K Ho
Jul 10, 2019·Child Development·Steven O RobertsSusan A Gelman
Feb 23, 2021·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Amy R KroschJay J Van Bavel
Jan 6, 2017·Journal of Experimental Child Psychology·Larisa HeiphetzLiane L Young

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