Effects of News Stereotypes on the Perception of Facial Threat

The human face is central to social interactions and therefore of primary importance in social perception. Two recent discoveries have contributed to a more thorough understanding of the role of news stereotypes in the perception of facial threat: First, social-cognition research has revealed that automatically activated stereotypes influence the perception of facial threat. Individuals holding hostile stereotypes toward dark-skinned outgroup members perceive ambiguous dark-skinned faces as more hostile than similar light-skinned faces. Second, media-stereotyping research has found that the media can influence individuals’ automatically activated stereotypes. Combining these two findings, it was hypothesized that reading tabloid articles about crimes committed by dark-skinned offenders would increase the perceived facial threat of meeting dark-skinned strangers in a subsequent situation. This hypothesis was tested in a laboratory experiment. Participants read crime articles where cues indicating (dark) skin color were mentioned or not. The results showed that reading about dark-skinned criminals increases the perceived facial threat of dark-skinned strangers compared with light-skinned strangers

Effects of News Stereotypes on the Perception of Facial Threat

The human face is central to social interactions and therefore of primary importance in social perception. Two recent discoveries have contributed to a more thorough understanding of the role of news stereotypes in the perception of facial threat: First, social-cognition research has revealed that automatically activated stereotypes influence the perception of facial threat. Individuals holding hostile stereotypes toward dark-skinned outgroup members perceive ambiguous dark-skinned faces as more hostile than similar light-skinned faces. Second, media-stereotyping research has found that the media can influence individuals’ automatically activated stereotypes. Combining these two findings, it was hypothesized that reading tabloid articles about crimes committed by dark-skinned offenders would increase the perceived facial threat of meeting dark-skinned strangers in a subsequent situation. This hypothesis was tested in a laboratory experiment. Participants read crime articles where cues indicating (dark) skin color were mentioned or not. The results showed that reading about dark-skinned criminals increases the perceived facial threat of dark-skinned strangers compared with light-skinned strangers

Impulsive facial threat perceptions after exposure to stereotypic crime news

Tests were performed to learn whether exposure to news about crimes committed by dark-skinned criminals increases impulsive facial-threat perceptions of meeting dark-skinned strangers in a subsequent situation (media-priming hypothesis), but only when the facial displays are ambiguous (ambiguity hypothesis). The assumption is that news stereotypes prime the “dark-skinned criminal” stereotype, which, in turn, influences subsequent face processing. An experiment with two groups was used to test this prediction. Participants allocated to the treatment group (n = 53) read about crimes committed by dark-skinned criminals. In contrast, for the control group (n = 52), cues indicating skin color were not mentioned at all. As predicted, the treatment increased the perceived facial threat of dark-skinned strangers, but only when the facial displays were ambiguous. Given the importance of the face in social interaction, I discuss important, real-world implications for recipients as well as for journalists and media organizations

Effects of Skin Color and Clothing Color on Perceived Violence and Aggression of Criminals

Introduction: Society has a history of attaching meaning to colors, and few colors have been given as much attention as red and black. In many contexts, these colors have strong negative associations. Red has long been representative of danger and aggression (Young, Elliot, Feltman, & Ambady, 2013), while black represents death and evil (Adams & Osgood, 1973; Sherman & Clore, 2009). Unfortunately, color associations are not limited to clothing or advertisements; skin color is also a subject of negative associations in the form of stereotyping. Darker skinned people, especially African-Americans, have long been subjected to negative stereotypes. The current study sought to explore how black and red influence person-perception, and specifically how skin color and clothing color influence perceptions of criminal behavior. Method: 156 participants reviewed a hypothetical crime in which a man robbed a woman for drug money. Participants were randomly assigned to see the perpetrator as a White or Black male wearing a red or gray shirt. Then they indicated how aggressive and violent the perpetrator was, followed by recommending an appropriate prison sentence for the crime. Results: African-American participants were more likely to rate White perpetrators as more aggressive in the red shirt condition. Additionally, Black participants perceived perpetrators of both races as more prone to violence when wearing red. Lastly, an in-group versus out-group effect was observed as Black and White participants assigned longer prison sentences to perpetrators of the opposite race. Conclusions: Color can carry meaning in impression formation contexts, and people use color information to make judgments of criminals. This work further highlights the importance of in-group and out-group relations in the domain of person perception, and it may have important real-world implications in the criminal justice system

The influence of affect on attitude

Priests of the medieval Catholic Church understood something about the relationship between affect and attitude. To instill the proper attitude in parishioners, priests dramatized the power of liturgy to save them from Hell in a service in which the experience of darkness and fear gave way to light and familiar liturgy. These ceremonies “were written and performed so as to first arouse and then allay anxieties and fears ” (Scott, 2003, p. 227): The service usually began in the dark of night with the gothic cathedral’s nave filled with worship-pers cast into total darkness. Terrifying noises, wailing, shrieks, screams, and clanging of metal mimicked the chaos of hell, giving frightened witnesses a taste of what they could expect if they were tempted to stray. After a prolonged period of this imitation of hell, the cathedral’s interior gradually became filled with the blaze of a thousand lights. As the gloom diminished, cacophony was supplanted by the measured tones of Gregorian chants and polyphony. Light and divine order replaced darkness and chaos (R. Scott, personal correspondence, March 15, 2004). This ceremony was designed to buttress beliefs by experience and to transfigure abstractions into attitudes. In place of merely hearing about “the chaos and perdition of hell that regular performances of liturgy were designed to hold in check ” (Scott, 2003), parishioners shoul

Racial Bias in Judgments of Physical Size and Formidability: From Size to Threat

Black men tend to be stereotyped as threatening and, as a result, may be disproportionately targeted by police even when unarmed. Here, we found evidence that biased perceptions of young Black men\u27s physical size may play a role in this process. The results of 7 studies showed that people have a bias to perceive young Black men as bigger (taller, heavier, more muscular) and more physically threatening (stronger, more capable of harm) than young White men. Both bottom-up cues of racial prototypicality and top-down information about race supported these misperceptions. Furthermore, this racial bias persisted even among a target sample from whom upper-body strength was controlled (suggesting that racial differences in formidability judgments are a product of bias rather than accuracy). Biased formidability judgments in turn promoted participants\u27 justifications of hypothetical use of force against Black suspects of crime. Thus, perceivers appear to integrate multiple pieces of information to ultimately conclude that young Black men are more physically threatening than young White men, believing that they must therefore be controlled using more aggressive measures

Unconventional Methods for a Traditional Setting: The Use of Virtual Reality to Reduce Implicit Racial Bias in the Courtroom

The presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial lie at the core of the United States justice system. While existing rules and practices serve to uphold these principles, the administration of justice is significantly compromised by a covert but influential factor: namely, implicit racial biases. These biases can lead to automatic associations between race and guilt, as well as impact the way in which judges and jurors interpret information throughout a trial. Despite the well-documented presence of implicit racial biases, few steps have been taken to ameliorate the problem in the courtroom setting. This Article discusses the potential of virtual reality to reduce these biases among judges and jurors. Through analyzing the various ethical and legal considerations, this Article contends that implementing virtual reality training with judges and jurors would be justifiable and advisable should effective means become available. Given that implicit racial biases can seriously undermine the fairness of the justice system, this Article ultimately asserts that unconventional de-biasing methods warrant legitimate attention and consideration

Application of Stereotypes in Marketing: Gender Cues and Brand Perception

Stereotypes and their applications and implications have emerged as an important area of investigation in the field of marketing. Yet, despite the growing interest and relevance of stereotypes among marketing scholars, the marketing literature lacks a cohesive understanding of their concept and application. In particular, little research in the field of consumer behavior has examined the effects of stereotypes on brand perception and the subsequent influence on consumer purchase intention. The goal of this dissertation is to create a deeper and more cohesive understanding of stereotypes and their implications for marketing practitioners, with a particular focus on gender stereotypes and brand perception. This dissertation consists of three projects. The first project outlines a conceptual framework of stereotypes and their application in the field of marketing by integrating knowledge from social psychology literature with knowledge from consumer behavior and marketing. Based on this framework, gaps in the marketing literature are identified and suggestions for future research are provided. Building upon project one, project two seeks to identify applications of stereotypes in the field of marketing. In particular, project two explores whether the use of gender stereotypes via gender cues (e.g., colors such as blue or pink) in a product description can influence brand perception along the warmth and competence dimensions and, consequently, impact upon consumer purchase intention. Further, the effect of gender cues is tested dependent upon the gender type of the product. The results indicate that feminine cues enhance perceived warmth which, in turn, increases purchase likelihood for masculine products. Perceived warmth serves as a mediator between the gender cue and purchasing likelihood, yet competence does not. Project three builds upon and integrates the findings from project two by investigating the effect of gender cues in the presence of warmth and competence cues. Thereby, a theoretical framework is proposed which takes multiple warmth and competence cues into account. Subsequently, this theoretical framework is used to assess the effects of gender cues, as well as warmth and competence cues, on consumer perception of brands and their purchase intention. Consistent with the theoretical framework, this project explores that feminine cues enhance perceived brand warmth and purchase intention when paired with a high competence cue, yet backfires when paired with a low competence cue. In contrast, implicit masculine gender cues enhance perceived brand competence and purchase intention when paired with low competence cues yet backfire when combined with high competence cues. Overall, this dissertation proposes recommendations on how practitioners are able to effectively use gender cues (i.e., butterflies, bears, circles, squares, colors such as pink and blue) as part of gender stereotypes within a firm’s marketing efforts (i.e., background of print ads or on the product packaging) to achieve desired consumer brand perception and improve purchase likelihood

Attentional Bias for Threat in Intergroup Anxiety

Threatening faces draw our attention with particular speed, a phenomenon commonly documented using behavioral measures such as the facial dot probe task. However, other aspects of the face that such tasks often fail to take into account, such as characteristics that signal race, also may influence threat perception. If dot probe tasks are to continue to serve as key measures of threat bias in research, we must understand whether and how the facial contexts in which angry expressions appear influence people’s attention to those expressions. The current study examined the ways in which emotional expression and facial race signifiers interact to convey threat in individuals with varying levels of racial intergroup anxiety. I proposed that participant race would moderate the relationship between intergroup anxiety and attentional bias to White and Black stimulus faces. One hundred and sixteen participants (Black = 58; White = 58) completed a modified version of the facial dot probe task, as well as self-report measures encompassing intergroup anxiety and individual demographics. Results indicated that participant race did not significantly moderate the association between intergroup anxiety for Black or White threatening faces. However, key group differences in attentional biases for threat were evident. White participants, but not Black participants, displayed statistically significant biases toward Black threatening faces. Additionally, for White participants, but not Black participants, increases in intergroup anxiety were associated with increases in attentional bias for Black faces. These findings provide a first step toward understanding the influence that facial signals of race may have on attentional allocation for threat cues within the dot probe task. They also highlight the need for increased care when generalizing findings from dot probe studies to diverse populations. Suggestions for future research include investigating the potential contribution of implicit attitudes to attentional bias for outgroup threat and including gender as an intergroup variable

Getting to know you: Accuracy and error in judgments of character

Character judgments play an important role in our everyday lives. However, decades of empirical research on trait attribution suggest that the cognitive processes that generate these judgments are prone to a number of biases and cognitive distortions. This gives rise to a skeptical worry about the epistemic foundations of everyday characterological beliefs that has deeply disturbing and alienating consequences. In this paper, I argue that this skeptical worry is misplaced: under the appropriate informational conditions, our everyday character-trait judgments are in fact quite trustworthy. I then propose a mindreading-based model of the socio-cognitive processes underlying trait attribution that explains both why these judgments are initially unreliable, and how they eventually become more accurate