The Effect of African American Skin Color on Hiring Preferences¹

Abstract

The role of African American skin color in hiring decisions was investigated in a 2 × 2 × 2 (Participant Sex × Applicant Sex × Applicant Skin Color) design. College‐age participants (N= 107) were presented with stimuli and asked to make 8 employment‐related decisions. An interaction of applicant skin color and participant sex and a skin‐color main effect were predicted. Fair‐skinned applicants were expected to receive better ratings from men, while dark‐skinned applicants were expected to receive better ratings from women or ratings from women would not differ. Additionally, in general, fair‐skinned individuals were expected to receive better ratings than dark‐skinned individuals. The results were consistent with the hypotheses. Results are discussed in terms of the “what is beautiful is good” stereotype and prior research.

The independent effects of skin tone and facial features on Whites' affective reactions to Blacks

“…Existing studies have exclusively focused on Black men as targets, and to date no Afrocentric features research has used Black women as targets. Gender differences have been reported in skin tone research (Coard, Breland, & Raskin, 2001;Hill, 2002;Ross, 1997;Thompson & Keith, 2001;Wade & Bielitz, 2005;Wade et al, 2004), thus the effects of facial features also may be different for Black men and women. Additionally, as already stated above, social dominance theory predicts target gender differences in racial bias.…”

“…Research of skin tone has consistently shown that darker-skinned Blacks are perceived, evaluated, and treated more negatively than lighter-skinned Blacks by both Whites and Blacks (Anderson & Cromwell, 1977;Averhart & Bigler, 1997;Dixon & Maddox, 2005;Hall, 1992Hall, , 2003Hall, , 2005Maddox & Chase, 2004;Maddox & Gray, 2002;Wade, Romano, & Blue, 2004). Research of Afrocentric features has also shown that facial features, such as fuller lips, wider nose, and coarse hair, in addition to darker skin, negatively influence Whites' reactions to Blacks (Blair, 2006;Blair, Chapleau, & Judd, 2005;Blair, Judd, & Fallman, 2004;Blair, Judd, Sadler, & Jenkins, 2002;Eberhardt, Davies, Purdie-Vaughns, & Johnson, 2006;Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie, & Davies, 2004;Livingston & Brewer, 2002).…”

“…Participants listed a greater number of negative than positive attributes for darker-skinned Blacks, whereas they listed a greater number of positive than negative attributes for lighter-skinned Blacks. As another example, Wade et al (2004) had White participants review job application materials ostensibly completed by Black applicants. Participants were more willing to accept lighter-skinned Black applicants than darker-skinned counterparts, regardless of applicant gender.…”

The Electoral Consequences of Skin Color: The “Hidden” Side of Race in Politics

“…Darker-skinned blacks, in short, were more ''deathworthy'' and less deserving of emergency assistance. Though arriving at more complex findings, audit studies of housing and experimental studies of hiring have also documented differential treatment by skin tone (Yinger 1995;Wade et al 2004); in the latter study, participants preferred light-skinned applicants to blacks with a darker appearance in an exercise in which they were asked to hire for an engineering firm. And perceptions of blacks themselves seem to reflect differential treatment by color, as darker-skinned blacks reported more discrimination than light-skinned blacks (Klonoff and Landrine 2000).…”

Biases in the Perception of Barack Obama's Skin Tone

“…In the United States and many other places, darker skin tone is linked to lower social status even when background characteristics are kept constant (e.g., Hunter, 2007;Smith-McLallen, Johnson, Dovidio, & Pearson, 2006;Uhlmann et al, 2002). Among African Americans, darker skin tone is related to lower educational attainment, occupational prestige, and family and personal income compared to lighter skin tone (e.g., Keith & Herring, 1991;Wade, Romano, & Blue, 2004). Research shows that both Whites and African Americans still associate different stereotypes with African Americans based on skin tone (Dixon & Maddox, 2005;Maddox & Gray, 2002).…”