Knowledge About Individuals' Interracial Friendships Is Systematically Associated With Mental Representations of Race, Traits, and Group Solidarity.

Jonas R Kunst,John F Dovidio,Ivuoma N Onyeador

doi:10.1177/01461672211024118

Jonas R Kunst, John F Dovidio + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211024118

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Abstract

Individuals with other-race friends are perceived to identify less strongly with their racial in-group than are individuals with same-race friends. Using the reverse-correlation technique, we show that this effect goes beyond perceptions of social identification, influencing how people are mentally represented. In four studies with Black and White American participants, we demonstrate a “racial assimilation effect”: Participants, independent of their own race, represented both Black and White targets with other-race friends as phenotypically more similar to the respective racial out-group. Representations of targets with racial out-group friends were subsequently rated as more likely to engage in social action supportive of the racial out-group. Out-group targets with other-race friends were represented more favorably than out-group targets with mostly same-race friends. White participants had particularly negative representations of in-group members with mostly Black friends. The present research suggests that individuals’ social networks influence how their race and associated traits are mentally represented.

Highlights

Intergroup biases are shaped by the nature of social exchanges between groups as well as by the characteristics of members of different groups
We test how beliefs about others’ intergroup friendships relate to intergroup responses by affecting the way people mentally represent members of in-groups and out-groups. We considered this issue in the context of race relations in the United States and from the perspectives of both White and Black Americans
The first study generated classification images of Black targets whose friendship networks differed in terms of their racial composition

Summary

Introduction

Intergroup biases are shaped by the nature of social exchanges between groups as well as by the characteristics of members of different groups. We test how beliefs about others’ intergroup friendships relate to intergroup responses by affecting the way people mentally represent members of in-groups and out-groups. We considered this issue in the context of race relations in the United States and from the perspectives of both White and Black Americans. Perceived prototypicality of facial appearance can independently influence responses through a category-based route by facilitating social categorization of an individual as a member of a different racial group (Maddox, 2004), which elicits a range of group-related impressions and expectations. The fourth study involved representative samples of Black and White participants who judged the appearance and traits of the target individuals represented by these images

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