On the Intentionality of Cultural Products: Representations of Black History As Psychological Affordances

Abstract

A cultural-psychological analysis emphasizes the intentionality of everyday worlds: the idea that material products not only bear psychological traces of culturally constituted beliefs and desires, but also subsequently afford and promote culturally consistent understandings and actions. We applied this conceptual framework of mutual constitution in a research project using quantitative and qualitative approaches to understand the dynamic resonance between sociocultural variance in Black History Month (BHM) representations and the reproduction of racial inequality in the U.S. In studies 1 and 2, we considered whether mainstream BHM artifacts reflect the preferences and understandings of White Americans (i.e., psychological constitution of cultural worlds). Consistent with the psychological constitution hypothesis, White American participants reported more positive affect, better recognition, and greater liking for BHM representations from the schools where White Americans were the majority than BHM representations from the schools where Black students and other students of color were the majority. Moreover, as an indication of the identity relevance of BHM representations, White identification was more positively associated with judgments of positive affect and preference in response to BHM representations from White schools than BHM representations from the schools where Black students were in the majority. In studies 3 and 4, we considered whether BHM representations from different settings differentially afford support or opposition to anti-racism policies (i.e., cultural constitution of psychological experience). In support of the cultural constitution hypothesis, BHM representations typical of schools where Black students were in the majority were more effective at promoting support for anti-racism policies compared to BHM representations typical of predominately White schools and a control condition. This effect was mediated by the effect of (different) BHM representations on perception of racism. Together, these studies suggest that representations of Black History constitute cultural affordances that, depending on their source, can promote (or impede) perception of racism and anti-racism efforts. This research contributes to an emerging body of work examining the bidirectional, psychological importance of cultural products. We discuss implications for theorizing collective manifestations of mind.

A cultural psychological analysis of collective memory as mediated action: Constructions of Indian history

“…For instance, previous studies (Salter & Adams, 2016) have shown that mainstream commemorations of Black History Month in majority-White schools in the U.S.A. tend to focus on issues of diversity and typically fail to mention details about the racist national past. These cultural practices afford both ignorance about the defining role of racism in U.S. society and opposition to policies that might address this injustice.…”

“…In contrast, commemorations of Black History Month in majority-Black schools tend to showcase more critical accounts of Black history that draw attention to historical injustices and inequalities. Exposure to these constructions of history afford greater perception of racism in American society and stronger endorsement of anti-racism policies than exposure to mainstream constructions that emphasize celebratory achievements of particular individuals (Salter & Adams, 2016).…”

“…One reason for this tendency to remember the ingroup's past in identity-favorable ways is the motivation to avoid threatening negative feelings (e.g., experience of collective guilt; Branscombe & Miron, 2004;Wohl, Branscombe, & Klar, 2006) and maintain a positive collective self-esteem (in accordance with social identity theory; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Strong ingroup identification is associated with numerous tendencies which minimize negative consequences of ingroup transgressions by, for example: psychologically distancing oneself from the ingroup (Pennebaker & Banasik, 1997), denying the negative impact of ingroup transgressions (Doosje, Branscombe, Spears, & Manstead, 1998), justifying harmful ingroup behavior to avoid ingroup responsibility (Figueiredo, Doosje, Valentim, & Zebel, 2010), shifting standards of justice so that ingroup wrongdoings no longer elicit negative feelings (e.g., collective guilt; Miron, Branscombe, & Biernat, 2010), or selectively reproducing an alternative set of glorifying narratives that celebrate ingroup accomplishments, while silencing or sanitizing ingroup transgressions Salter & Adams, 2016). …”

“…When people remember the ingroup's past in identity-consistent ways, the results often reverberate beyond their individual responses and leave traces in everyday ecology. For example, research suggests that White Americans tend to prefer and recommend racism-silent constructions of Black History Month commemorations more than racism-acknowledging constructions, and this pattern of differential preferences likely explains the differential prominence of these types of artifacts in majority-White and majority-Black schools in the U.S.A., respectively (Salter & Adams, 2016).…”

Collective memory as tool for intergroup conflict: The case of 9/11 commemoration

“…With respect to the topic of memory, this approach emphasizes that understandings of the past are not the sole property of atomized individual minds, but develop through engagement with commemoration practices, cultural products, and other cultural tools for memory. These tools include relatively explicit forms such as university entrance exams (Kurtiş, Soylu Yalcinkaya, & Adams, 2017, this section), museum exhibits (Mukherjee, Salter, & Molina, 2015), monuments (Licata & Klein, 2010), and classroom displays (Salter & Adams, 2016). They also include relatively implicit forms such as the ecological association between "the Iraqi regime" and the "attacks of September the 11th" that Bush Related to this emphasis on material manifestations of mind is an appreciation for the intentionality of everyday worlds (Salter & Adams, 2016;see Shweder, 1990).…”