“Other”: Examining the Link Between Race-Based Biases in Social Cognition and Social Perception
Date
2023-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Sociality is inherent to human life. Although the processes that underlie it often help us navigate the world around us efficiently, they are often subject to bias, namely ingroup bias. Moreover, biases in perception (e.g., the Cross-Race-Effect) may be related to biases in our judgments of others (i.e., impression formation). The present research aims to understand the dynamic nature of racial biases by testing if differences in impression formation and updating are correlated with differential perception of faces. More specifically, we hypothesized that Black individuals would be rated lower on trustworthiness based on learned behavioral information, and that these ratings would be correlated with blunted sensitivity to Black faces during memorization and pain tasks. 270 participants were recruited over two experiments; in the first experiment, subjects first completed a standard Cross-Race-Effect (CRE) task. They then learned either positive or negative false information about either Black or White targets, after which they made initial impression ratings. Participants then learned new information about the target and were prompted to update their impressions. In Experiment 2, participants completed the same Impression Formation and Impression Updating tasks as Experiment 1, but a Pain Perception Task was interlaced between ratings (as opposed to the CRE task). Results from both experiments suggest that race and valence can impact impression formation and updating, and that differential sensitivity to faces may be correlated with differences in impressions under certain conditions. This research presents new findings on the interconnected nature of racial bias and provides new insight on the potential causes of everyday microaggressions that many people of color experience.