The Effect of Model Minority Myth Salience on White Americans’ Perceptions of Black Americans and Their Support for Affirmative Action

Abstract

ABOUT PSI CHI Psi Chi is the International Honor So ci ety in Psychology, found ed in 1929. Its mission: "recognizing and promoting excellence in the science and application of psy chol ogy." Mem ber ship is open to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and alumni mak ing the study of psy chol ogy one of their major interests and who meet Psi Chi's min i mum qual i fi ca tions. Psi Chi is a member of the As so cia tion of Col lege Honor So ci et ies (ACHS), and is an affiliate of the Ameri can Psy cho logi cal As so cia tion (APA) and the Association for Psy cho log i cal Science (APS). Psi Chi's sister honor society is Psi Beta, the na tion al honor society in psychology for com mu nity and junior colleges. Psi Chi functions as a federation of chap ters located at over 1,180 senior col leg es and universities around the world. The Psi Chi Central Office is lo cat ed in Chatta nooga, Ten nessee. A Board of Directors, com posed of psy chol o gy faculty who are Psi Chi members and who are elect ed by the chapters, guides the affairs of the Or ga ni za tion and sets pol i cy with the ap prov al of the chap ters. Psi Chi membership provides two major opportunities. The first of these is ac a dem ic rec og ni tion to all in duc tees by the mere fact of mem ber ship. The sec ond is the opportunity of each of the Society's local chapters to nourish and stim u late the pro fes sion al growth of all members through fellowship and activities de signed to augment and en hance the reg u lar cur ric u lum. In addition, the Or ga ni za tion provides programs to help achieve these goals including con ven tions, research awards and grants competitions, and publication opportunities. JOURNAL PURPOSE STATEMENT The twofold purpose of the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research is to foster and reward the scholarly efforts of Psi Chi members, whether students or faculty, as well as to provide them with a valuable learning experience. The articles published in the Journal represent the work of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty; the Journal is dedicated to increas ing its scope and relevance by accepting and involving diverse people of varied racial, ethnic, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious, and social class backgrounds, among many others. To further support authors and enhance Journal visibility, articles are now available in the PsycINFO®, EBSCO®, Crossref®, and Google Scholar databases. In 2016, the Journal also became open access (i.e., free online to all readers and authors) to broad en the dissemination of research across the psychological science community.

At the intersection of the model minority myth and antiblackness: From Asian American triangulation to recommendations for solidarity.

“…Although research has highlighted the detrimental consequences of these stereotypes on Asian American mental health (Noh, 2018; Tummala-Narra et al, 2018), scholars have critiqued the lack of attention paid to white supremacy as the motivation behind the model minority myth (MMM; Poon et al, 2016; Yu, 2006). In our literature review, we also found little scholarship explicitly linking anti-Asian racism with antiblackness (Lee & Outten, 2020; Liu, 2018; Yi & Todd, 2021). Given that Asian Americans are positioned in the role of “middleman minority” (Wu, 2002, p. 58), as a buffer and a more acceptable minority than Black Americans, we believed that it was critical to acknowledge antiblackness as an inherent assumption in Asian American experiences of racial triangulation.…”

“…While there is a growing body of empirical research on racial triangulation and the MMM (Chan, 2019; Yi & Todd, 2021), few studies simultaneously examine antiblackness. Recent scholarship has highlighted the link between the endorsement of the MMM and anti-Black attitudes in Asian Americans (Yi & Todd, 2021) and White Americans (Lee & Outten, 2020). However, this work has not captured the interplay of antiblackness and anti-Asian racism.…”

Guidance or Gatekeeping: An Audit Examination of Racial Discrimination in Leading STEM High Schools

“…We suggest that guidance counselors at institutions with lower SES and higher prestige may be particularly sensitive to the maintenance of Whiteness in STEM fields. The widespread acceptance of the Model Minority Myth (Lee & Outten, 2020) and Asian Americans as an overrepresented ethnic-racial group in STEM participation (NSF, 2017) reinforce that Asian Americans are a threat to White students in STEM. Indeed, research has highlighted the notion of "Asian threat" in relation to school SES and STEM prestige.…”

“…In education, this has resulted in the unique and harmful stereotyping of Black and Latinx students as unintelligent and lacking motivation. In contrast, Asian students are stereotyped using the Model Minority , the myth of universal intelligence (Lee & Outten, 2020). This myth heightens the threat Asian Americans pose to Whites’ maintenance of supremacy.…”

“You're overreacting!”: The ambiguity of Asian American microaggressions delegitimizes collective action

“…Social science has established that the MMM and PFS can be detrimental to the well‐being of Asian Americans and have negative implications for U.S. race relations (Chan & Mendoza‐Denton, 2008; Huynh et al., 2011; Iwamoto & Liu, 2010; Kim et al., 2011; Lee & Outten, 2020). However, there is a lack of research examining whether racial microaggressions that Asian Americans face such as the MMM—whether expressed ambiguously or unambiguously—are perceived as racist by laypeople (see Alt et al., 2019, for an example).…”