Jane Anderson Erik Feia and Pauline Ceulemans Faculty Advisor Sarah Wood University of Wisconsin Stout Hypothesis When observing ambiguously aggressive acts the threshold for labeling an act as violent is lower when viewing a black actor than when viewing a white actor ID: 368597
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Skin Color and Perceptions of Ambiguous Aggression
Jane Anderson, Erik Feia and Pauline Ceulemans Faculty Advisor: Sarah WoodUniversity of Wisconsin - Stout
Hypothesis: When observing ambiguously aggressive acts, the threshold for labeling an act as violent is lower when viewing a black actor than when viewing a white actor.
Background and Research Questions Previous research has found that black men were perceived as being more aggressive and less friendly than white men performing identical acts. Does this bias still exist? Have people become more adept at providing socially acceptable responses to questions about racism? Has the “melting pot” effect decreased subtle racism in American culture?
Results A black person poking a white person was perceived as more friendly and playful than a white person poking a white person. F(2,76) = 2.97, p = .057. A Fisher LSD test revealed p < .05. This ran counter to the tested hypothesis.
Conclusions:
Possible explanations for these results according to the literature:Desire for socially acceptable responses Diminished racism in the United StatesSmall sample sizeLatent racism – assumption that it is “normal” for blacks to behave more violently than whites ·
Method
Participants viewed
1 of 3 colored drawings and heard a short description. Participants rated actor and recipient for personality and behavior traits.
Vignette “Anthony was sitting at his desk, working on his social studies assignment, when Michael started poking him in the back with the eraser end of his pencil. Anthony just kept on working. Michael kept poking him for a while, and then he finally stopped.”