The use of Afrocentric features as cues for judgment in the presence of diagnostic information

Abstract

Prior research has shown that within racial category, group members with more Afrocentric facial features are presumed to have more stereotypic traits than those with less Afrocentric features. The present experiment investigated whether this form of feature-based stereotyping occurs when more diagnostic information is available. The participants were provided with photographs and information about the aggressive (or non-aggressive) behaviour of 64 African Americans in four different situations, and asked to predict the likelihood of aggression in a fifth situation. As expected, each instance of aggression increased estimates that a target would behave aggressively in the unknown situation. With degree of displayed aggression controlled, however, targets with more Afrocentric features were judged as significantly more likely to behave aggressively than targets with less Afrocentric features. Thus, stereotyping based on Afrocentric features occurs even when other obviously-relevant information is available. This suggests that it may be difficult to detect and avoid.

A boy primed Sue: feature‐based processing and person construal

“…With regard to this fundamental social-cognitive question, recent research tells a pretty consistent tale. Differences in the typicality of faces moderate the activation and application of generic knowledge structures in memory, such that targets with facial features deemed characteristic of the groups to which they belong, elicit more stereotype-based responses than their less prototypic counterparts (Blair et al, 2002(Blair et al, , 2004(Blair et al, , 2005Livingston & Brewer, 2002;Locke et al, 2005). The current findings extend these observations in a number of important ways.…”

“…In addition, however, they extend previous work in a couple of important ways. First, they demonstrate that category-specifying features need not be embedded in intact facial primes to moderate the process of person categorization (e.g., Blair et al, 2004Blair et al, , 2005Livingston & Brewer, 2002;Locke et al, 2005). Second, they highlight the impact that isolated facial cues exert in tasks in which perceivers are not explicitly required to identify the sex of targets (Schyns et al)-mere registration of a featural cue is sufficient to trigger category activation.…”

“…To date, researchers have directed limited attention to the cues that initiate stereotypical thinking (but see Blair et al, 2004Blair et al, , 2005Livingston & Brewer, 2002). Instead, empirical emphasis has centered on the products of this mode of thought.…”

A dynamic interactive theory of person construal.

“…Thus, more prototypically masculine facial or vocal features (relative to less), for instance, affect the competition between male and female categories, which results in a stronger stable representation of the male category and weaker stable representation of the female category (see Figure 4A). This can bear a variety of downstream effects, shaping trait attributions (Blair et al, 2005;Blair, Judd, & Fallman, 2004;Blair et al, 2002;Ko, Judd, & Blair, 2006;Maddox & Gray, 2002) as well as behavior (Blair, Judd, & Chapleau, 2004;Eberhardt et al, 2006). Moreover, as shown in Phenomenon 4, categorization of a focal category membership may be shaped by other memberships because the perceptual cues supporting those memberships are directly confounded (e.g., angry men and happy women; Becker et al, 2007).…”

“…For instance, the presence of Blackspecifying cues on a person who is not Black (e.g., a White face) increases Black-related stereotypic attributions (Blair et al, 2005(Blair et al, , 2002. These effects may thereafter influence behavior as well.…”