Natural ambiguities: Racial categorization of multiracial individuals

Chen, Jacqueline M.; Hamilton, David L.

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.10.005

Cited by 130 publications

(208 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Thus, even to say that race should be conceived of as a continuum is an inadequate corrective to categorical thinking; rather, race is a space defined by a large number of orthogonal continua within which we have contingently imposed a system of discrete categories. Of course, categories have psychological power: Once we are accustomed to them, discrete race categories appear obvious or even natural, and thus, multiracial people can become difficult or ambiguous perceptual objects, at least to monoracial perceivers (Chen & Hamilton, 2012).…”

Section: Race As Continua Versus Categorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of course, some multiracial individuals choose to self-identify in terms of one specific racial identity, and such self-identifications may affect how others see them. But beyond these anecdotes, there is abundant evidence that when asked to categorize unfamiliar multiracial targets, monoracial perceivers frequently place them into discrete racial categories even when a multiracial category is available (Chen & Hamilton, 2012; despite the fact that many multiracial individuals actually prefer to identify and be seen as multiracial (Townsend, Markus, & Bergsieker, 2009;Udry, Li, & Hendrickson-Smith, 2003).…”

Section: Multiracial Individuals As Targets Of Social Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond Discrete Categories: Studying Multiracial, Intersex, and Transgender Children Will Strengthen Basic Developmental Science

Dunham

Olson

2016

Journal of Cognition and Development

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Section: Race As Continua Versus Categorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multiracial Individuals As Targets Of Social Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Discrete Categories: Studying Multiracial, Intersex, and Transgender Children Will Strengthen Basic Developmental Science

Dunham

Olson

2016

Journal of Cognition and Development

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“…Given the pervasive and consensual nature of the existing monoracial categories, we did not expect IMS and EMS to influence categorizations of Black targets or White targets. Monoracial Black and White persons are usually categorized quickly and easily as Black and White, respectively (Chen & Hamilton, 2012;Willadsen-Jensen & Ito, 2006).…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, concordant categorizations of multiracial targets mean categorizing them as Multiracial, whereas concordant categorizations of Black targets and White targets mean categorizing them as Black and White, respectively. Discordant categorizations occur when perceivers categorize multiracial targets as monoracial (either Black or White) and when they categorize monoracial Black or White targets as Multiracial (see Chen & Hamilton, 2012, for additional discussion of this terminology).…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivation to Control Prejudice Predicts Categorization of Multiracials

Chen

Moons

Gaither

et al. 2014

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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Virginia, 1967). Since then, interracial marriage in the United States has been steadily growing-in 2010, 15% of new marriages were between persons of different races (Hayes, 2012). As such, it is not surprising that the number of multiracial individuals in the United States is increasing as well, with the most common multiracial background being Black-White multiracial (U.S. Census, 2010). In fact, multiracials are now one of the fastest growing racial groups in the country, yet social psychologists are only beginning to investigate how this population is perceived and ultimately treated.As multiracial individuals gain visibility in American society, they challenge the utility of perceivers' existing racial categorization system. The average perceiver relies heavily on monoracial categories (e.g., Black, White) in person perception, and use of these categories is highly automatic (Chen & Hamilton, 2012;Cunningham et al., 2004;Willadsen-Jensen & Ito, 2006). Furthermore, monoracial categories are typically thought to be mutually exclusive (Hirschfeld, 1996), such that racial categorization of a novel individual consists of asking the question, "Is he Black or White?" However, multiracial individuals often do not offer a straightforward answer to this question. Therefore, perceivers may find the racial categorization of multiracial individuals to be more difficult than the racial categorizations they are accustomed to making (Chen & Hamilton, 2012;Freeman, Pauker, Apfelbaum, & Ambady, 2010).Perceivers may deal with the ambiguity surrounding the categorization of multiracial individuals in a number of ways, and several different motivations may play an important role in these categorization processes. For instance, perceivers often categorize a multiracial target on the basis of his or her lower status racial group, a categorization pattern called hypodescent that has historical and legal precedence in the United Sates

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“…To reduce the influence of outliers on sample means, response latencies below 300 ms and above 3000 ms (1.1% of responses) were replaced with those values, respectively (e.g., Chen & Hamilton, 2012). Another paired samples t-test revealed that response latencies for correct responses were longer for the matched probes (M = 1098, SD = 293) than for the mismatched probes (M = 1011, SD = 288), t(45) = 2.96, p = .01, d = 0.88.…”

Section: Response Latenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous social role inferences

Chen

Banerji

Moons

et al. 2014

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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• Perceivers spontaneously infer information about people from their behavior.• We proposed that perceivers infer others' social roles from their behaviors.• Three studies documented spontaneous role inferences (SRIs).• SRIs were cognitively efficient, forming under cognitive load.• SRIs had downstream consequences for trait impressions of targets. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Past research has demonstrated that perceivers spontaneously infer individuals' goals, beliefs, and traits from their behaviors. These inferences processes are essential for predicting others' future behaviors and, thus, for smooth social interaction. Given that social roles (e.g., professor, mother) are also predictive of an individual's future behaviors, we proposed that perceivers spontaneously infer individuals' social roles from their behaviors. Across three experiments, including two different paradigms, we documented that perceivers formed spontaneous role inferences (SRIs) from single behaviors. SRIs occurred unintentionally, efficiently, and had important downstream consequences for impression formation. Namely, SRIs led perceivers to rate targets as higher on role-consistent traits. Together, these findings provide the first empirical demonstration of a novel process in impression formation.Published by Elsevier Inc. Spontaneous social role inferencesOne of the earliest questions asked by social psychologists was: how do perceivers distill knowledge of another person from his or her behaviors? Humans have an unparalleled ability to extract valuable social information, such as intentions and dispositions, from the mere observation of another person's behavior. Given that others' social roles also provide important information about their intentions and future behaviors, we propose that perceivers also readily infer individuals' social roles from their behaviors.

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Natural ambiguities: Racial categorization of multiracial individuals

Cited by 130 publications

References 39 publications

Beyond Discrete Categories: Studying Multiracial, Intersex, and Transgender Children Will Strengthen Basic Developmental Science

Beyond Discrete Categories: Studying Multiracial, Intersex, and Transgender Children Will Strengthen Basic Developmental Science

Motivation to Control Prejudice Predicts Categorization of Multiracials

Spontaneous social role inferences

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