Exposure to Biracial Faces Reduces ColorblindnessPosted 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.
Read or purchase the article here.