Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination at the intersection of race and gender: An intersectional theory primer

Abstract

The incorporation of intersectionality within social psychology is becoming an increasingly common practice. From the hypotheses we generate to the methods we employ, as well as the analyses we run and the theories we use, researchers are moving away from studying social identities in isolation. By studying the interactional and emergent properties of multiple identities that go beyond the sum of identities, as well as understanding the complex nature of power and privilege, social psychologists can better understand processes such as stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Yet it can be difficult for researchers to know exactly where to begin. This review serves as a primer for conducting intersectionally‐informed research within social psychology, using the intersection of race and gender within the United States as a case study. We first describe the history of intersectional research in psychology, noting its barriers to implementation. Next, we review three classes of intersectionally‐informed models — intersectional perception, experience, and treatment — and offer suggestions for future research as well as ways researchers can incorporate the model within their work.

Signaling safety and fostering fairness: Exploring the psychological processes underlying (in)congruent cues among Black women.

“…Critically, as identity safety cue scholarship has been increasingly applied to not just single but also multiple minoritized persons (e.g., Pietri et al, 2019; Pietri, Johnson, & Ozgumus, 2018), the need for a theoretical framework detailing the ways in which minoritized persons represent their many social identities has become paramount. Social identity complexity theory offers a useful framework to investigate how single and multiple minoritized persons navigate their unique combinations of social identities and hence provides an intersectional lens to explicate and predict not just cue efficacy but a broad range of psychological processes (see also Hudson et al, 2024).…”

Integrating personality psychology and intersectionality to advance diversity in the study of persons

“…In contrast, research on intersectionality in personality and social psychology typically takes a quantitative approach, which often treats structural identity domains as independent (Bowleg, 2008), employs 2 � 2 factorial designs that limit the number of identities examined (Warner, 2008), and/or assesses interaction terms between two or more identity categories (e.g., Petsko et al, 2022). Thus, social psychological research on intersectionality often treats structural identity domains as additive categories (e.g., Hudson et al, 2024), rather than joint shapers of human experience that reflect interrelated structures of oppression (Bauer et al, 2021). But structural identity domains are "not unidimensional and independent, but multidimensional and interlocking" (Bowleg, 2017a, p. 516).…”

Measuring and reducing implicit prejudice against Black women and people with intersectional identities

“…Viewed abstractly, intersectionality in Social Psychology represents a move from studying single identities (e.g., race or gender) to studying how multiple identities intersect (e.g., race and gender) to produce unique identities and experiences (Hudson et al, 2024;Lei et al, 2023). Thus, one concrete way to view intersectionality is as a call to center the experiences of and biases faced by people with intersectional identities like Black women.…”