Identity Denied: Comparing American or White Identity Denial and Psychological Health Outcomes Among Bicultural and Biracial People

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2018-08-14 18:19Z by Steven

Identity Denied: Comparing American or White Identity Denial and Psychological Health Outcomes Among Bicultural and Biracial People

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
First Published 2018-08-07
DOI: 10.1177/0146167218788553

Analia F. Albuja
Department of Psychology
Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey

Diana T. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Psychology
Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey

Sarah E. Gaither, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Because bicultural and biracial people have two identities within one social domain (culture or race), their identification is often challenged by others. Although it is established that identity denial is associated with poor psychological health, the processes through which this occurs are less understood. Across two high-powered studies, we tested identity autonomy, the perceived compatibility of identities, and social belonging as mediators of the relationship between identity denial and well-being among bicultural and biracial individuals. Bicultural and biracial participants who experienced challenges to their American or White identities felt less freedom in choosing an identity and perceived their identities as less compatible, which was ultimately associated with greater reports of depressive symptoms and stress. Study 2 replicated these results and measured social belonging, which also accounted for significant variance in well-being. The results suggest the processes were similar across populations, highlighting important implications for the generalizability to other dual-identity populations.

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Exposure to Biracial Faces Reduces Colorblindness

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Social Science on 2018-06-06 19:34Z by Steven

Exposure to Biracial Faces Reduces Colorblindness

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
First published 2018-06-06
DOI: 10.1177/0146167218778012

Sarah E. Gaither, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Negin R. Toosi, Diversity Researcher
Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Laura G. Babbitt, Researcher
Department of Psychology
Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts

Samuel R. Sommers, Director of the Undergraduate Program; Professor of Psychology
Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts

Across six studies, we demonstrate that exposure to biracial individuals significantly reduces endorsement of colorblindness as a racial ideology among White individuals. Real-world exposure to biracial individuals predicts lower levels of colorblindness compared with White and Black exposure (Study 1). Brief manipulated exposure to images of biracial faces reduces colorblindness compared with exposure to White faces, Black faces, a set of diverse monoracial faces, or abstract images (Studies 2-5). In addition, these effects occur only when a biracial label is paired with the face rather than resulting from the novelty of the mixed-race faces themselves (Study 4). Finally, we show that the shift in White participants’ colorblindness attitudes is driven by social tuning, based on participants’ expectations that biracial individuals are lower in colorblindness than monoracial individuals (Studies 5-6). These studies suggest that the multiracial population’s increasing size and visibility has the potential to positively shift racial attitudes.

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Motivation to Control Prejudice Predicts Categorization of Multiracials

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2014-01-25 15:52Z by Steven

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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Blood Quantum and Perceptions of Black-White Biracial Targets: The Black Ancestry Prototype Model of Affirmative Action

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Social Science on 2010-11-26 01:22Z by Steven

Blood Quantum and Perceptions of Black-White Biracial Targets: The Black Ancestry Prototype Model of Affirmative Action

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume 37, Number 1
(January 2011)
pages 3-14
DOI: 10.1177/0146167210389473

Diana T. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Psychology
Rutgers University

Jessica J. Good, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina

George F. Chavez
Department of Psychology
Rutgers University

The present study examined the causal role of amount of Black ancestry in targets’ perceived fit with Black prototypes and perceivers’ categorization of biracial targets. Greater Black ancestry increased the likelihood that perceivers categorized biracial targets as Black and perceived targets as fitting Black prototypes (e.g., experiencing racial discrimination, possessing stereotypic traits). These results persisted, controlling for perceptions of phenotype that stem from ancestry information. Perceivers’ beliefs about how society would categorize the biracial targets predicted perceptions of discrimination, whereas perceivers’ beliefs about the targets’ self-categorization predicted trait perceptions. The results of this study support the Black ancestry prototype model of affirmative action, which reveals the downstream consequences of Black ancestry for the distribution of minority resources (e.g., affirmative action) to biracial targets.

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When Race Matters: Racially Stigmatized Others and Perceiving Race as a Biological Construction Affect Biracial People’s Daily Well-Being

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2009-07-31 21:51Z by Steven

When Race Matters: Racially Stigmatized Others and Perceiving Race as a Biological Construction Affect Biracial People’s Daily Well-Being

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume 35, Number 9 (September 2009)
pages 1154-1164
DOI: 10.1177/0146167209337628

Diana T. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Psychology
Rutgers University

Julie A. Garcia, Associate Professor of Psychology
California Polytechnic State University

Stigmatized group members experience greater well-being in the presence of similar others, which may be driven by the perception that similar others value their shared stigmatized identities (i.e., high public regard). Using experience sampling methodology, this hypothesis is tested with biracial people (29 Asian/White, 23 Black/ White, and 26 Latino/White biracial participants). This study proposes that the greater percentage of stigmatized similar others in one’s daily context would predict greater daily well-being for biracial people through higher public regard, but only if biracial people believe that race has biological meaning. These findings add to a growing, but limited, literature on biracial individuals.  These findings are situated within the broader literature on stigma and similar others, as well as new theories regarding the consequences of believing race has biological meaning.

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