When an “Educated” Black Man Becomes Lighter in the Mind’s EyePosted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive on 2014-01-15 21:05Z by Steven |
When an “Educated” Black Man Becomes Lighter in the Mind’s Eye
SAGE Open
2014-01-14
9 pages
DOI: 10.1177/2158244013516770
Avi Ben-Zeev, Professor of Cognitive Psychology
San Francisco State University
Tara C. Dennehy
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Robin I. Goodrich
University of California, Davis
Branden S. Kolarik
University of California, Davis
Mark W. Geisler, Professor of Physiological Psychology
San Francisco State University
We offer novel evidence that a Black man appears lighter in the mind’s eye following a counter-stereotypic prime, a phenomenon we refer to as skin tone memory bias. In Experiment 1, participants were primed subliminally with the counter-stereotypic word educated or with the stereotypic word ignorant, followed by the target stimulus of a Black man’s face. A recognition memory task for the target’s face and six lures (skin tone variations of ±25%, ±37%, and ±50%) revealed that participants primed with “educated” exhibited more memory errors with respect to lighter lures—misidentifying even the lightest lure as the target more often than counterparts primed with “ignorant.” This skin tone memory bias was replicated in Experiment 2. We situate these findings in theorizing on the mind’s striving for cognitive consistency. Black individuals who defy social stereotypes might not challenge social norms sufficiently but rather may be remembered as lighter, perpetuating status quo beliefs.
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