Abstract
AbstractAcross societies, there is a tendency to associate members of low status groups with anger, and to associate members of high status groups with calm (i.e. the hunchback heuristic), but there is no empirical documentation for this phenomenon. Thus, in a pilot study (N = 30) we validated the stimuli that we generated to test the existence of a hunchback stereotype by distinguishing two interstatus contexts of skin-shade and race in terms of social status: Dark-skinned Indians (and Blacks) were perceived as lower in social status compared to light-skinned Indians (and Whites). Using a multi-method approach comprising an IAT-like protocol and explicit self-reports, Study 2 (N = 80) revealed that perceivers associated dark-skinned Indians with anger, and light-skinned Indians with calm: An effect that was explained by perceived social status. Study 3 (N = 114) corroborated the evidence from Study 2, but in the interstatus contexts of Blacks vs. Whites, and large men vs. slim men. Blacks (and large men)...
Highlights
People with this “chip on the shoulder” syndrome may react quietly with a “hurt feelings” attitude or maybe in a violent burst of emotion. Jim Lord (2016, our emphasis).A “chip on the shoulder” is the expression often used to describe individuals with a sense of continuing frustration over mistreatment from others and, as the opening quote illustrates, people who feel this way are expected to vent their frustration via anger
A repeated t-test showed that our Malaysian participants perceived White targets to be higher in social status compared to Black targets (t = 6.18, d = .60, skinned Indians’ calm β (SE) = .10, p < .0001, 95% CI = [.408, 793], Cohen’s d = .58)
When we investigated the simple effects of size within each racial group, we found, consistent with the hunchback stereotype that, slim men were consistently viewed as more calm-looking than their larger counterparts and, this was true for Blacks
Summary
People with this “chip on the shoulder” syndrome may react quietly with a “hurt feelings” attitude or maybe in a violent burst of emotion. Jim Lord (2016, our emphasis).A “chip on the shoulder” is the expression often used to describe individuals with a sense of continuing frustration over mistreatment from others and, as the opening quote illustrates, people who feel this way are expected to vent their frustration via anger. Evidence abound regarding the widespread use of this assumption across societies, both in the West (e.g. the French’s avoir une crotte sur le cœur) and in the East (e.g. the Chinese 愤恨不平 [fèn fèn bù ping]; and the Indo-Malay idiom sakit hati; cf Rees & Silove, 2011). These expressions are ostensibly used for people who are aggrieved in some way, there are indications that the link they make between frustration and proneness to anger is more often directed towards groups that occupy low social status or are dehumanised in some way. Even a Google search for “angry” with a wildcard returns several hits that more directly associate members of undervalued or stereotyped groups in society with anger: e.g. “the angry black woman”, “the angry black man”, “the angry feminist”, “the angry wife”, “angry nerd” and so on
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