The Obama Effect Six Years Later: The Effect of Exposure to Obama on Implicit Anti-Black Evaluative bias and Implicit Racial Stereotyping

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Across two studies we examined whether exposure to Obama, a positive and counter-stereotypic exemplar, reduced implicit anti-Black evaluative bias and racial stereotyping. Additionally, we evaluated whether reactions to exposure to Obama were moderated by people's explicit feelings about Obama or their perceptions of his stereotypicality. In Study 2, we extended our scope to evaluate whether a positive but stereotypic Black exemplar, Kobe Bryant, had similar effects as Obama on implicit responses. We found that exposure to either Bryant or Obama, following exposure to negative Black exemplars, caused a reduction in implicit anti-Black evaluative bias and racial stereotyping, relative to a control condition. Further, we failed to find evidence that people's explicit feelings toward Obama or their perceptions of Obama's stereotypicality moderated the effect of subliminal exposure to him on implicit responses. The implications of these findings for the role of positive exemplars on implicit responses are dis...