Racial Outgroup Members Research Articles

The Dark Side of Safety: A Call for a More Thorough Consideration of Racism and Collective Power Motivations in the Social Psychology of Firearms.

This paper situates current social psychological research on the symbolic use of firearms (e.g., as a source of personal safety) in broader historical context to motivate a more thorough consideration of collective power motives. Historically, firearms have been used to dominate racial outgroup members (e.g., White Americans use of firearms and firearm laws to dispossess indigenous people of land or control free and enslaved Black people) or, at times, attempt to resist group-based oppression (e.g., Black Americans use of firearms to struggle against White Jim Crow terrorism). Given most gun owners report self-protection as their primary reason for firearm ownership and yet anti-Black attitudes are still a consistently important predictor of firearm ownership among dominant group members (e.g., White Americans), this paper examines how guns may function as a perceived source of personal safety and collective power. I center the persistent role of White supremacy and anti-Blackness in original U.S. firearm psychology and policy to illuminate the interrelatedness of personal safety and collective power perceptions, and how perceived threats to in-group power may motivate the use of guns and policies that selectively regulate gun access to mitigate associated safety concerns. Seeking to nudge social psychology to more thoroughly examine firearms' potential function as a symbolic source of collective power, I end by discussing how considering collective power can help us better understand how historically dominant and historically marginalized groups view firearms today while also illuminating some barriers to the pursuit of gun safety for all.

Who are you to me?: A relational approach to examining race-gender associations

Scholars have posited that characteristics of a perceptual target impact how readily gender is associated with them, arguing that cultural biases in the U.S. make it such that certain racial groups are more or less associated with womanhood and manhood. We provide a novel expansion on this work by integrating characteristics of the perceiver, suggesting that individuals have a fundamental cognitive association between racial in-group members and gender. In four studies, we find that exposure to racial in-group members (as opposed to racial out-group members) facilitates the processing of gendered information relative to gender-irrelevant stimuli across both the familial (Studies 1–3) and employment (Study 4) contexts, suggesting that gender is indeed more strongly associated with racial in-group members. Using a sequential priming paradigm, we find this to be true among White (Studies 1–4), Asian (Studies 2–4), and Black (Studies 3–4) perceivers. The present work highlights the inherently relational nature of gender and gender roles, suggesting that theory about how gender intersects with race is incomplete without consideration of the psychological relationship between perceptual targets and perceivers. We thus provide an important expansion on theory about person perception at the intersection of gender and race.

Hypodescent or ingroup overexclusion?: Children's and adults' racial categorization of ambiguous black/white biracial faces.

Two processes describe racially ambiguous Black/White Biracial categorization-the one-drop rule, or hypodescent, whereby racially ambiguous people are categorized as members of their socially subordinated racial group (i.e., Black/White Biracial faces categorized as Black) and the ingroup overexclusion effect, whereby racially ambiguous people are categorized as members of a salient outgroup, regardless of the group's status. Without developmental research with racially diverse samples, it is unclear when these categorization patterns emerge. Study 1 included White, Black, and racially diverse Biracial children (aged 3- to 7-years) and their parents to test how racial group membership and social context influence face categorization biases. To provide the clearest test of hypodescent and ingroup overexclusion, White participants came from majority White neighborhoods and Black participants from majority Black neighborhoods (with Biracial participants from more racially diverse neighborhoods)-two samples with prominent racial ingroups. Study 2 aimed to replicate the parent findings with a separate sample of White, Black, Black/White Biracial, and Asian adults. Results suggest the ingroup overexclusion effect is present across populations early in development and persists into adulthood. Additionally, categorization was meaningfully related to parental context, pinpointing a pathway that potentially contributes to ingroup overexclusion. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: White, Black, and racially diverse Biracial children and adults tended to categorize racially ambiguous Black/White Biracial faces as racial outgroup members, even if the outgroup was White. This contradicts most work arguing Black/White Biracial racially ambiguous people are more often seen as Black. Children and parents' categorizations were related, though children's categorizations were not related to socialization above and beyond parents' categorizations. Children showed similar categorization patterns across dichotomous and continuous measures.

Community diversity and the other-race effect in infancy.

The other-race effect (ORE) is characterized by processing advantages for faces of one's own race over faces of another race and is observed at ~9 months of age. Environmental exposure to other races has an impact on the development of the ORE. In the current study, we examined the effects of community racial diversity on the ORE in 9- to 12-month-olds from across the United States. We hypothesized that community racial diversity would influence the amount of experience that infants have with individuals of other races and be an important factor in predicting the ORE across broad regions of the United States. We predicted that infants from more diverse communities would demonstrate successful processing of own- and other-race faces, while infants from less diverse communities would demonstrate successful processing of own-race but not other-race faces. This would indicate that the ORE is exhibited more strongly in infants from less diverse communities than in infants from more diverse communities. Participants completed familiarization and visual paired comparison (VPC) trials with own- and other-race faces in an online study. Our results showed that although the ORE was present, the effect was driven by community members who were the racial majority. Recognition biases were not observed in community racial or ethnic minority participants, potentially due to increased exposure to racial out-group members, which mitigated the development of the ORE in this subset of participants. This study has far-reaching implications in the study of infant face perception, child development, and social justice, as the ORE develops at a young age, and may lead to a complex pattern of racial biases contributing to systemic barriers in society.

Seeing racial avoidance on New York City streets.

Here, using publicly available traffic camera feeds in combination with a real-world field experiment, we examine how pedestrians of different races behave in the presence of racial out-group members. Across two different New York City neighbourhoods and 3,552 pedestrians, we generate an unobtrusive, large-scale measure of inter-group racial avoidance by measuring the distance individuals maintain between themselves and other racial groups. We find that, on average, pedestrians in our sample (93% of whom were phenotypically non-Black) give a wider berth to Black confederates, as compared with white non-Hispanic confederates.

Brief Mindfulness Instruction Predicts Anonymous Prosocial Helping of an Ostracized Racial Outgroup Member

Training in mindfulness has been found to enhance interpersonal benefits (e.g., gratitude, forgiveness, empathy, compassion). Here, we ask if these interpersonal benefits extend to intergroup contexts. Two experiments (n = 256) tested whether brief mindfulness instruction predicted higher prosocial helping behavior toward an ostracized racial outgroup member. In Study 1, mindfulness instruction, relative to active and inactive controls, predicted higher helping behavior toward an ostracized racial outgroup member in a private (but not in a public) context. State empathic concern did not mediate the relationship between mindfulness training and private helping behavior. In Study 2, which involved greater anonymity, mindfulness instruction predicted higher private and public helping behavior toward an ostracized racial outgroup member. Empathic concern statistically mediated the relationship between mindfulness training and public, but not private, helping. Together these two studies indicate that, in a relatively anonymous context, brief mindfulness instruction predicts higher empathic concern and helping behavior toward an ostracized racial outgroup member. Discussion focuses on implications and limitations of mindfulness for intergroup prosociality.

Community-level explicit racial prejudice potentiates whites’ neural responses to black faces: A spatial meta-analysis

ABSTRACT We evaluated the hypothesis that neural responses to racial out-group members vary systematically based on the level of racial prejudice in the surrounding community. To do so, we conducted a spatial meta-analysis, which included a comprehensive set of studies (k = 22; N = 481). Specifically, we tested whether community-level racial prejudice moderated neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces in primarily White participants. Racial attitudes, obtained from Project Implicit, were aggregated to the county (k = 17; N = 10,743) in which each study was conducted. Multi-level kernel density analysis demonstrated that significant differences in neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces in right amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were detected more often in communities with higher (vs. lower) levels of explicit (but not implicit) racial prejudice. These findings advance social-cognitive neuroscience by identifying aspects of macro-social contexts that may alter neural responses to out-group members.

The intergroup sensitivity effect among racial groups in the United States

The intergroup sensitivity effect (ISE) refers to individuals responding more negatively to criticism directed toward their ingroup if the criticism is delivered by someone outside the group. The ISE has never been examined for groups defined by race. In light of ongoing racial tensions in America, the purpose of the current research was to examine whether the ISE replicates among racial groups. Study 1 replicated the ISE among African American, European American, and Latinx American university students and, unexpectedly, found that European American participants responded more positively to praise delivered by a racial outgroup member. Study 2 replicated these results in a nonstudent sample and identified motivation to respond without prejudice as a moderator of the praise effect. In both studies, the ISE was mediated by perceptions of comment legitimacy/constructiveness but was not moderated by feelings toward the outgroup. Future directions and explanations for the praise effect are discussed.

Short-Term Training in Mindfulness Predicts Helping Behavior Toward Racial Ingroup and Outgroup Members

A randomized controlled trial tested whether mindfulness training would increase lab-based and in vivo spontaneous helping behaviors toward racial outgroup members. First, across conditions, those scoring higher in baseline trait mindfulness showed higher levels of preintervention lab-based and ecological momentary assessment (EMA)-based helping behavior. Next, short-term (4-day) training in mindfulness, relative to a well-matched sham meditation training, increased interracial helping behavior in a lab-based simulation. Finally, among people scoring lower in a basic form of trait mindfulness at baseline—that is, with greater room for improvement—mindfulness training predicted higher postintervention in vivo helping behavior reported via EMA. However, neither training condition alone attenuated preferential helping toward racial ingroup members. These findings indicate, for the first time, that mindfulness and its training fosters helping behavior toward strangers and acquaintances regardless of their racial ingroup or outgroup status, but preferential helping of racial ingroup members remains.

Impact of perceived interpersonal similarity on attention to the eyes of same-race and other-race faces

One reason for the persistence of racial discrimination may be anticipated dissimilarity with racial outgroup members that prevent meaningful interactions. In the present research, we investigated whether perceived similarity would impact the processing of same-race and other-race faces.Specifically, in two experiments, we varied the extent to which White participants were ostensibly similar to targets via bogus feedback on a personality test. With an eye tracker, we measured the effect of this manipulation on attention to the eyes, a critical region for person perception and face memory. In Experiment 1, we monitored the impact of perceived interpersonal similarity on White participants’ attention to the eyes of same-race White targets. In Experiment 2, we replicated this procedure, but White participants were presented with either same-race White targets or other-race Black targets in a between-subjects design. The pattern of results in both experiments indicated a positive linear effect of similarity—greater perceived similarity between participants and targets predicted more attention to the eyes of White and Black faces. The implications of these findings related to top-down effects of perceived similarity for our understanding of basic processes in face perception, as well as intergroup relations, are discussed.

Lay Beliefs About Who Can Bridge the Black–White Racial Gap During Interracial Exchanges

For group discussions about fraught racial topics between Black and White Americans to be beneficial, conversation participants must view the person who facilitates as effective at communicating both the perspectives of Black and White Americans. We identify a biracial advantage in this domain. In three studies (total N = 710), we tested how a facilitator’s race affects their perceived effectiveness in communicating with both Black and White Americans. Both Black and White participants expected Black and White monoracial facilitators to more effectively engage with racial in-group than racial out-group members. However, they expected biracial facilitators to be equally effective in communicating with both Black and White groups. Both Black and White participants also expected biracial facilitators to use productive learning strategies (perspective taking, showing empathy) more than White facilitators, and either more than or equally to Black facilitators, suggesting one reason why people expect biracial facilitators to perform well in these moments.

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Cross-Race Friendships and Attraction.

Four studies investigated the link between cross-race friendships and attraction. In Study 1, White Australian participants (N = 240) who reported friendships with racial outgroup members were more likely to report attraction to the members of the racial group their friends belonged to. Studies 2a (N = 300 White American participants) and 2b (N = 303 White British participants) showed that experiences of cross-race non-verbal intimacy, perceived cross-race reciprocity in attraction, positive perceived ingroup norms about dating cross-racially, and warmth toward the racial outgroup were particularly important in explaining the friendship-attraction link in majority samples. Study 3 (N = 292 Black British participants) showed that in addition to the mediators above, self-disclosure was key to explaining the friendship-attraction link for racial minority group members. These findings extend the contact literature by exploring the specificity and mediators of the link between contact and attraction in the context of race relations.

White parents’ racial socialization and young adults’ racial attitudes: Moral reasoning and motivation to respond without prejudice as mediators

This study examined relations between parental racial socialization messages (i.e., egalitarianism, racemute, and preparation for bias) and racial attitudes in a sample of 282 White young adults (ages 18–22) in the United States. Egalitarianism messages were positively related to warmth toward racial outgroup members, whereas preparation for bias was negatively related to warmth toward racial outgroup members. In both cases the relation between racial socialization and racial attitudes was mediated by internal motivation to respond without prejudice and fairness/reciprocity moral orientation. Contrary to our expectations, racemute socialization messages were not directly related to participants’ warmth toward racial outgroup members. However, racemute socialization predicted internal motivation to respond without prejudice and fairness/reciprocity moral orientation, which in turn predicted outgroup warmth. These findings suggest possible mechanisms by which parents’ messages about race and racism may shape youths’ racial attitudes.

Perspective taking reduces group biases in sensorimotor resonance

Similar neural circuits are activated during action and the observation of action and such sensorimotor resonance is said to support action understanding and empathy. Previous research, however, shows that group biases can restrict sensorimotor resonance to the social ingroup. Here we test whether an empathic mindset can alleviate such group biases in sensorimotor resonance. Participants adopted either an objective mindset or a perspective taking mindset while writing about a day in the life of a racial outgroup member. Participants in an objective mindset resonated with ingroup members, indicated by significant suppression of the 8–13 Hz electroencephalographic (EEG) mu-rhythm recorded over sensorimotor areas during action observation compared to baseline, but did not show significant mu-suppression in response to outgroup members. In contrast, participants in a perspective taking mindset resonated with both ingroup and outgroup members and significantly more so with outgroup members. Moreover, mindset uniquely affected resonance in response to outgroup members but not in response to ingroup members, with participants who previously took the perspective of an outgroup member later responding with more resonance to the actions of other outgroup members. Together these findings suggest that taking the perspective of a racial outgroup member can reduce group biases in sensorimotor resonance, potentially fostering an intuitive understanding across groups.

Which Bad News to Choose? The Influence of Race and Social Identity on Story Selections Within Negative News Contexts

This study provides a clearer understanding of how audience members’ race influences their media choices. It finds that in today’s overwhelmingly negative media environment, people prefer reading negative stories about persons in their own racial group over stories about racial out-group members. This suggests social movements seeking to change the attitudes of people of different races using media (e.g., Black Lives Matter) might not be as successful as those in the past (e.g., Civil Rights Movement). Today, people tend to ignore such news when there is other bad news that affects people in their own racial group.

Understanding prejudice in terms of approach tendencies: The Dark Triad traits, sex differences, and political personality traits

We examined whether the Dark Triad traits predict race- and sex-based prejudice or just a generalized antisociality. American MTurk workers (N = 266) reported their approach tendencies towards targets who were varied by sex (i.e., same sex, other sex) and race (i.e., same race, different race) and responded to questionnaires capturing the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and political personality (i.e., social dominance and authoritarianism). Social dominance, narcissism, and psychopathy revealed a generalized pattern of limited approach (i.e., prejudice) towards members of both sexes and racial in-group and out-group members. In contrast, Machiavellianism and authoritarianism were only linked to limited approach towards racial out-group members. Sex differences in approach tendencies towards different race and opposite-sex others were fully and partially mediated by individual differences in the Dark Triad traits and social dominance (respectively), the Dark Triad traits accounted for more variance than social dominance in same sex and different race approach tendencies, and some of the links between personality and approach tendencies were moderated by the sex of the participant. Results were discussed in relation to how personality traits can account for prejudicial attitudes.

The role of value perceptions in intergroup conflict and cooperation

ABSTRACT Democratic politics, at its core, consists of competition between group interests. What brings groups into social and political conflict with each other, and what may instead drive them to cooperate or become allies? This paper presents evidence from a nationally representative non-probability survey, finding that groups’ perceived values—that is, their general beliefs about what is right or desirable—relate to a broad array of intergroup relationships. Individuals who perceive racial, religious, and partisan outgroup members as supporting self-transcendence values (those related to care, cooperation and other prosocial behaviors) express more positive affect, solidarity, willingness to engage in political action, and tolerance with respect to those groups. The magnitude of this association exceeds those of other perceived basic and political values, even when it comes to explicitly political attitudes or target groups. Thus, fundamental, ostensibly nonpolitical beliefs about outgroups’ prosocial intentions may underlie intergroup conflict and cooperation.

The effect of behavioral synchrony with black or white virtual agents on outgroup trust

Trust toward outgroup members is generally lower than it is toward ingroup members. Behavioral synchrony with virtual outgroup characters has been identified as a means of improving attitudes toward racial outgroup members, but this effect has not been tested for outgroup trust. We tested the effect of synchrony with an ingroup/outgroup virtual agent on a behavioral measure of outgroup trust. An experiment used an online economic game to obtain pretest and posttest measures of trust. In between these measures, participants played a dance video game on Xbox Kinect. They were randomly assigned to either an ingroup or outgroup agent (black or white) partner. Game score served as a continuous measure of synchrony with the agent. Regression analysis revealed that agent race moderated synchrony's effect on change in outgroup trust. Increased synchrony with an outgroup agent led to increased outgroup trust. Conversely, increased synchrony with an ingroup agent led to decreased outgroup trust. Findings are discussed with respect to implications for using virtual interactions to build outgroup trust in the real world.

Acute Stress Reduces Perceived Trustworthiness of Male Racial Outgroup Faces

Outgroup members are often perceived as threating and untrustworthy, and this is particularly true for judgments of outgroup males. As race influences perceptions of group membership, male racial outgroup faces (MROFs) are judged as less trustworthy than male racial ingroup faces (MRIFs). Neurologically, this effect is mediated by amygdala activation, a brain region central to the processing of fear-related stimuli, threat detection, vigilance regulation and facial trustworthiness. As acute stress up regulates amygdala activity and promotes hyper-vigilance towards threatening stimuli, we hypothesised that acute stress would result in increased vigilance and lower trustworthiness judgements towards MROFs. In contrast, we expected that stress would have no effect on MRIFs. Using a within-subjects design, White-Dutch male participants rated the perceived trustworthiness of White males (ingroup) and Arab males (outgroup) under stress and during the absence of stress (baseline). Stress significantly reduced trust towards racial outgroup members, whilst trust towards racial ingroup members was maintained. Understanding the mechanisms by which stress differentially affects social behaviors towards outgroups is of theoretical and practical relevance to our understanding of the biological basis of ethnocentrism and xenophobia.

Virtual race transformation reverses racial in-group bias.

People generally show greater preference for members of their own racial group compared to racial out-group members. This type of ‘in-group bias’ is evident in mimicry behaviors. We tend to automatically mimic the behaviors of in-group members, and this behavior is associated with interpersonal sensitivity and empathy. However, mimicry is reduced when interacting with out-group members. Although race is considered an unchangeable trait, it is possible using embodiment in immersive virtual reality to engender the illusion in people of having a body of a different race. Previous research has used this technique to show that after a short period of embodiment of White people in a Black virtual body their implicit racial bias against Black people diminishes. Here we show that this technique powerfully enhances mimicry. We carried out an experiment with 32 White (Caucasian) female participants. Half were embodied in a White virtual body and the remainder in a Black virtual body. Each interacted in two different sessions with a White and a Black virtual character, in counterbalanced order. The results show that dyads with the same virtual body skin color expressed greater mimicry than those of different color. Importantly, this effect occurred depending on the virtual body’s race, not participants’ actual racial group. When embodied in a Black virtual body, White participants treat Black as their novel in-group and Whites become their novel out-group. This reversed in-group bias effect was obtained regardless of participants’ level of implicit racial bias. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this surprising psychological phenomenon.