Mixed Race Studies

I am Multiracial: Predictors of Multiracial identification strength among mixed ancestry individuals

Self and Identity
Published online: 2019-06-29
DOI: 10.1080/15298868.2019.1635522

Jasmine B. Norman, Graduate Assistant
Department of Psychology
University of Utah

Jacqueline M. Chen, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology
University of Utah

Research has yet to examine variability in how strongly individuals claim the unconventional Multiracial identity and why. In two studies, we examined mixed-race individuals’ strength of Multiracial identification. Across both studies (N_S1 = 139; N_S2 = 215), mixed-race people who regularly received feedback that their appearance was incongruent with their background had stronger Multiracial identification. In Study 2, perceived discrimination was associated with Multiracial identification, but the link depended on the racial group of the perpetrator. Specifically, perceiving discrimination from ingroup members was associated with stronger Multiracial identification, and this was strongest when White ingroup members were the source of discrimination. These findings demonstrate the interpersonal nature of racial identity and illuminate the complex dynamics of negotiating multiple racial backgrounds.

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Black + White = Not White: Understanding How Multiracial Individuals Are Categorized

UNEWS
The University of Utah
2018-06-14

Brooke Adams, Communications Specialist
University Marketing & Communication

Study finds minority bias exerts a powerful influence in categorizing multiracial individuals

How you perceive someone who is multiracial matters. Historically, the answer to that question for someone who was black-white multiracial had repercussions for who that person could marry, what school he or she could attend and other forms of discrimination the individual might experience.

Today, the United States is becoming increasingly multiracial, but social psychologists are just beginning to understand how multiracial individuals are perceived and categorized. A new study suggests that the so-called “minority bias” exerts a powerful influence — important since one in five Americans is expected to identify as multiracial by 2050.

University of Utah psychology professor Jacqueline M. Chen, lead author of the study published by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, that found observers were most likely to categorize someone who is black-white multiracial as non-white. The findings are the first to document minority bias as a guiding principle in multiracial categorization.

“The question of how perceivers racially categorize multiracial individuals is important because it impacts other social perceptions, like stereotyping, and interactions,” Chen said. “The bottom line is that we find people tend to see racially ambiguous, multiracial people as racial minorities.”…

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Black + White = Not White: A minority bias in categorizations of Black-White multiracials

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Volume 78, September 2018
pages 43-54
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2018.05.002

Jacqueline M. Chen, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology
University of Utah

Kristin Pauker, Associate Professor of Psychology
University of Hawaii

Sarah E. Gaither, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

David L. Hamilton, Research Professor, Professor Emeritus
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
University of California, Santa Barbara

Jeffrey W. Sherman, Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of California, Davis

Highlights

• We examined the categorization of Black-White multiracial faces using novel methods.
• Multiracials were implicitly categorized separately from Black and White targets.
• Multiracials were explicitly categorized into many non-White racial groups.
• “Non-White” categorizations of multiracials occurred very quickly.

The present research sought to provide new insights on the principles guiding the categorization of Black-White multiracial faces at a first encounter. Previous studies have typically measured categorization of multiracial faces using close-ended tasks that constrain available categorizations. Those studies find evidence that perceivers tend to categorize multiracials as Black more often than as White. Two studies used less constrained, implicit (Experiment 1) and explicit categorization (Experiment 2) tasks and found that multiracial faces were most frequently categorized into racial minority groups but not necessarily as Black. These studies suggested a minority bias in multiracial categorizations, whereby multiracials are more frequently categorized as non-White than as White. Experiment 3 provided additional support for the minority bias, showing that participants categorized multiracials as “Not White” more often than as any other category. Participants were also faster to exclude multiracial faces from the White category than from any other racial category. Together, these findings are the first to document the minority bias as a guiding principle in multiracial categorization.

Outline

• Highlights
• Abstract
• Keywords
• 1. Experiment 1: Implicit Categorization of Multiracials
• 2. Method
• 3. Results
• 4. Discussion
• 5. Experiment 2: Free Sorting of Faces by Race
• 6. Method
• 7. Results
• 9. Interim Summary
• 8. Discussion
• 10. Experiment 3: Time Course of the Minority Bias
• 11. Method
• 12. Results
• 13. Discussion
• 14. General Discussion
• Open practices
• Appendix A. Supplementary data
• References

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Black, white or multicultural: constructing race in two countries

The University of Utah News
2017-09-18

New study compares how people in U.S. and Brazil determine someone’s race

A new study demonstrates the strong influence ancestry plays in Americans’ interpretation of whether someone is black, white or multiracial, highlighting differences in the way race is socially constructed in the U.S. compared to other parts of the world.

The three-phase study, led by Jacqueline M. Chen of the University of Utah and published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, compared how Brazilians and Americans assessed the race of another person. Brazilians were more likely to decide what race a person was based on his or her appearance, while Americans relied most heavily on parentage to make that determination.

“Our results speak to completely different definitions of what race is and whether ancestry or family background is even relevant to race,” said Chen, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah. “It is ingrained in Americans to think about race in terms of heritage. In the U.S., people ask about where your family is from as a way to ascertain your race. But in Brazil, people don’t focus on family history when determining someone’s race.”

Co-authors of the study are Maria Clara P. de Paula Cuoto of the Ayrton Senna Institute in São Paulo, Brazil (her involvement in the study is not related to her work at the institute); Airi M. Sacco of the Federal University of Pelotas, Pelatos, Brazil; and Yarrow Dunham of Yale University.

The researchers conducted three different experiments in the U.S. and Brazil to assess cultural differences in how participants determined race. Both countries have a history of European settlement, Native American displacement and African slavery, but have adopted different strategies and practices to address racial diversity, the researchers said.

The U.S. historically attempted to maintain racial hierarchy through formal rules that denied rights and resources to African Americans. Brazil encouraged interracial marriage as a way for individuals to move up the social hierarchy and to reduce the number of people who strongly self-identified as black…

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To Be or Not to Be (Black or Multiracial or White): Cultural Variation in Racial Boundaries

Social Psychological and Personality Science
First Published 2017-08-28
DOI: 10.1177/1948550617725149

Jacqueline M. Chen, Assistant Professor, Social Psychology
University of Utah

Maria Clara P. de Paula Couto
Ayrton Senna Institute, São Paulo, Brazil

Airi M. Sacco
Department of Psychology
Federal University of Pelotas, Pelatos, Brazil

Yarrow Dunham, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Yale University

Culture shapes the meaning of race and, consequently, who is placed into which racial categories. Three experiments conducted in the United States and Brazil illustrated the cultural nature of racial categorization. In Experiment 1, a target’s racial ancestry influenced Americans’ categorizations but had no impact on Brazilians’ categorizations. Experiment 2 showed cultural differences in the reliance on two phenotypic cues to race; Brazilians’ categorizations were more strongly determined by skin tone than were Americans’ categorizations, and Americans’ categorizations were more strongly determined by other facial features compared to Brazilians’ categorizations. Experiment 3 demonstrated cultural differences in the motivated use of racial categories. When the racial hierarchy was threatened, only Americans more strictly enforced the Black–White racial boundary. Cultural forces shape the conceptual, perceptual, and ideological construal of racial categories.

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Implicit Attitude Generalization From Black to Black–White Biracial Group Members

Social Psychological and Personality
Published online before print: 2015-01-13
DOI: 10.1177/1948550614567686

Jacqueline M. Chen, Post-doctoral Scholar
Department of Psychology
University of California, Davis

Kate A. Ratliff, Assistant Professor of Psychology
University of Florida

We investigated whether Black–White biracial individuals are perceived as Black in the domain of evaluation. Previous research has documented that White perceivers’ negative evaluation of one Black person leads to a negative implicit evaluation of another Black person belonging to the same minimal group. We built upon this out-group transfer effect by investigating whether perceivers also transferred negative implicit attitudes from one Black person to a novel Black–White biracial person. In three experiments, participants learned about a Black individual who performed undesirable behaviors and were then introduced to a new group member. White perceivers formed negative attitudes toward the original individual and transferred these attitudes to the new group member if she was Black or Biracial, but not if she was White (Experiment 1) or Asian (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 demonstrated that only White participants exhibited transfer to the new Black and Biracial group members; Black participants did not.

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Motivation to Control Prejudice Predicts Categorization of Multiracials

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume 40, Number 5 (May 2014)
pages 590-603
DOI: 10.1177/0146167213520457

Jacqueline M. Chen, Post-doctoral Scholar
University of California, Davis

Wesley G. Moons, Assistant Professor of Psychology
University of California, Davis

Sarah E. Gaither
Department of Psychology
Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts

David L. Hamilton, Research Professor of Social Psychology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Jeffrey W. Sherman, Professor of Psychology
University of California, Davis

Multiracial individuals often do not easily fit into existing racial categories. Perceivers may adopt a novel racial category to categorize multiracial targets, but their willingness to do so may depend on their motivations. We investigated whether perceivers’ levels of internal motivation to control prejudice (IMS) and external motivation to control prejudice (EMS) predicted their likelihood of categorizing Black–White multiracial faces as Multiracial. Across four studies, IMS positively predicted perceivers’ categorizations of multiracial faces as Multiracial. The association between IMS and Multiracial categorizations was strongest when faces were most racially ambiguous. Explicit prejudice, implicit prejudice, and interracial contact were ruled out as explanations for the relationship between IMS and Multiracial categorizations. EMS may be negatively associated with the use of the Multiracial category. Therefore, perceivers’ motivations to control prejudice have important implications for racial categorization processes.

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Often Misidentified, Multiracial People Value Accurate Perceptions

American Psychological Association
Press Releases
2013-08-02

Average American has trouble identifying multiracial people, research finds

HONOLULU — Multiracial people may be misidentified more often as being white than black and may value being accurately identified more so than single-race individuals, according to research presented at APA’s 121st Annual Convention.

“Today, the distinctions among white, black, Latino and Asian people are becoming blurred by the increasing frequency and prominence of multiracial people,” said Jacqueline M. Chen, PhD, of the University of California, Davis. “Still, average Americans have difficulty identifying multiracial people who don’t conform to the traditional single-race categories that society has used all their lives.”

Chen discussed six experiments in which participants were consistently less likely to identify people as multiracial than single-race and took longer to identify someone as multiracial compared to how easily they identified black, white and Asian people. When they made incorrect identifications, they were consistently more likely to categorize a multiracial person as white than black, the study found. Time pressure, distractions and thinking of race in either-or terms made observers significantly less likely to identify someone as multiracial. The study was conducted at the University of California, Santa Barbara and involved 435 ethnically diverse undergraduate students.

Participants identified the race of black, white, Asian or multiracial individuals in photos and researchers recorded each participant’s accuracy and time to respond. Researchers used a memorization task and a time limit in two experiments to determine if either would affect a participant’s accuracy. In another experiment, participants were told the study was about reading comprehension and attention. They then read news articles about scientists claiming to find a genetic basis for race and were asked to view several photographs of faces and identify them by race.

Scientists agree that the racial categories we use today are not based on biological differences but are social constructions that can change over time, Chen said, noting that until the mid-20th century, the Anglo-Saxon majority in the United States viewed Irish and Italian immigrants as different races. Previous research has found that people who identify as multiracial have as many as or more positive experiences than those who identify with a single race, regardless of that group’s status in society, she said…

…In another presentation during the same convention session, Jessica D. Remedios, PhD, of Tufts University, looked at how multiracial people value the accuracy of another person’s perception of their race. “Our research found that multiracial people expect positive interactions with people who accurately perceive their racial backgrounds because that affirms their self-perceptions,” Remedios said. ..

Read the entire press release here.

Natural Ambiguities: Racial Categorization of Multiracial Individuals

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Volume 48, Issue 1, January 2012
pages 152–164
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.10.005

Jacqueline M. Chen
University of California, Santa Barbara

David L. Hamilton, Professor of Social Psychology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Understanding the perception of multiracial persons is increasingly important in today’s diverse society. The present research investigated the process of categorizing multiracial persons as “Multiracial.” We hypothesized that perceivers would make fewer Multiracial categorizations of multiracials and that these categorizations would take longer than monoracial categorizations. We found support for these hypotheses across six experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that perceivers did not categorize morphed Black-White faces as Multiracial with the same frequency with which they categorized Black and White faces as Black and White (respectively), and that categorizations of multiracials as Multiracial took longer than monoracial categorizations. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these effects to real Black-White faces. Experiment 3 showed that these findings generalized to Asian-White faces. We used pixel variance analysis to show that these effects were not due to increased variance among Multiracial faces. The image analysis showed that the Black-White morphs and real biracials were actually less varied than either the Black or White sets of faces. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that cognitive load and time constraints detrimentally affected multiracial, but not monoracial, categorizations. Experiment 6 showed that imbuing monoracial categories were importance decreases use of the Multiracial category. Implications of these findings for understanding perceptions of multiracial persons are discussed.

Highlights

• We investigated the process of categorizing multiracial persons as “multiracial.
• Multiracial categorizations are not as spontaneous as monoracial ones.
• These results are not driven by properties of the multiracial stimuli.
• Perceiving racial dichotomies as meaningful inhibits multiracial categorization.

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Perceptions of Multiracial Individuals: Categorization Effects on the Race Continuum

Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2011 Annual Meeting
San Antonio, Texas
Poster Session G100
Saturday, 2011-01-29
18:15-19:45 (Local Time), Room TBD

Jacqueline M. Chen
University of California, Santa Barbara

David L. Hamilton, Professor of Psychology
University of California, Santa Barbara

We used a psychophysical approach to studying the categorization of biracials. The point-of-subjective-equality (PSE), or the exact ratio of minority-to-white background that is equally likely to be categorized as White or minority, differed for Asian-White and Black-White biracials. Only the PSE for Asian-White biracial suggested hypodescent.

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