‘White men can’t jump in a black basketball game?’ An exploratory investigation of implicit strategies of outgroup discrimination

Abstract

Examining the ‘natural’ athlete myth and utilizing the recent literature on cultural/social factors in athleticism and basketball, this study through survey research examines the influence of stereotypes on the impression formation of basketball players. The primary research question is to determine from a group of students the attitudes of basketball players in terms of how they evaluate white and black players in basketball. The purpose is to identify participants’ perceptions and their appreciation as to whether or not black are superior to white basketball players. The theoretical framework employed is articulated around the theory of social categorization and racial stereotypes already observed in sports. In an initial qualitative phase, the results show that stereotypical representations exert an influence on the skills associated with basketball players depending on the colour of their skin, which is reflected in the use of adjectives specific to each of the categories of black and white. In a second quantitative phase, whereas a more favourable view of black basketball players might have been attributable to positive discrimination as per the anti-racist norm, the results show the activation of a bias towards favouring one’s own group. Once all of the initial adjectives have been expressed, the targets behave in the expected way in terms of the laws of social categorization i.e. they have a more positive view of the members of their own group (the Whites) than of the other group (the Blacks) as adjectives are cited for describing skills.