Who Differentiates by Skin Color? Status Attributions and Skin Pigmentation in Chile

Abstract

A growing body of research has shown that phenotypes and skin pigmentation play a fundamental role in stratification dynamics in Latin American countries. However, the relevance of skin color on status attribution for different status groups has been little studied in the region. This article seeks to broaden the research on phenotypic status cues using Chile as a context for analysis – a Latin American country with a narrow although continuous spectrum of skin tones, marked status differences, and a mostly white elite. We draw on status construction theory to hypothesize that skin pigmentation in Chile has become a status cue, although its heuristic relevance could differ across status groups. Using visual stimuli and a repeated measure design, we studied this relationship and tested whether the use of skin pigmentation as a status cue is conditional upon the status of those categorizing others. The results reveal that participants attribute, on average, lower status to others of darker skin. Besides, skin pigmentation has a conditional effect on the social status of participants: whereas skin pigmentation does not work as a status cue for lower status participants, it is an important status marker for the categorizations that middle and especially higher status participants perform. The phenotypic composition of reference groups of low- and high-status individuals and system justification are discussed as potential explanations for these results.

Mapuche Transitions from Education to Work: Vulnerable Transitions and Unequal Outcomes

“…This information supports cautious optimism given that ongoing indigenous-non-indigenous accumulated disadvantages remain embedded in Chile's societal structures and institutions, including some discrimination based on skin color (Torres et al, 2019).…”

Expectations of trustworthiness in cross-status interactions

“…The visual stimuli for the vignettes are based on 120 photographs of students' faces taken at four post-secondary educational institutions in Santiago, Chile, paired with rich socioeconomic data from the photographees (self-reported SES information such as subjective and objective status). The details of how the visual stimuli were elaborated and selected can be found in a previous paper by the authors (Torres et al, 2019). The stimuli data comprise scores on different characteristics attributed to the photographs by different, independent samples of post-secondary education students: skin pigmentation of the photographees using the PERLA scale designed for the Latin America context (Telles, 2014); moral and emotional features (or 'functional attributes') of faces (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008), such as attributions of generosity, trustworthiness, attractiveness, submission, and intelligence.…”

“…Seven characteristics (summarized in Table 1) were used in this factorial study to create each vignette (i.e., fictitious trustee): 1) photograph; 2) post-secondary-education institution; 3) his/her mother's education; 4) his/her household income; 5) gender (implicit in the picture); 6) whether he/she voted in the last local election; and 7) his/her religious denomination. First, presentation-based features in the visual stimuli are powerful cues for status categorization of strangers in daily life (Salgado & Castillo, 2018;Torres et al, 2019). Second, previous research indicates a significant degree of 2 In order to randomly manipulate the stimuli in the vignettes, this study involved deceiving participants into thinking that the individuals presented in the vignettes were real individuals.…”

“…Inequality has been a structural feature of the social order in Chile (PNUD, 2017), which still has high income inequality, with a Gini index of 44.4 (World Bank 2017). Chile also exhibits low intergenerational economic mobility (Núñez & Miranda, 2010), characterized by high elite closure (Torche, 2005), clear occupational barriers between social classes (Espinoza and Núñez 2014), and status attributions based on skin tone (Salgado & Castillo, 2018) especially among the closed-off elite (Torres, et al 2019).…”

Social Status Differences in Altruism, Fairness and Retaliatory Defection in an Unequal Country

“…This country shows high levels of income inequality with a Gini index of 47.7 (World Bank 2017). It has a social mobility regime characterized by high elite closure (Torche, 2005), low intergenerational economic mobility (Núñez & Miranda, 2010), clear occupational barriers between social classes (Espinoza and Núñez 2014), and status attributions based on skin tone (Salgado & Castillo, 2018), especially among the closed-off elite (Torres et al, 2019). Also, in the last decade Chile has experienced two different cycles of social unrest and protests demanding more equality of opportunities and social justice: the "social awakening" of 2011 (Garcés, 2012) and the most recent "Chilean spring" of 2019-2020 (Somma et al, 2020).…”