Faculty Articles
Racism and Racial Categorization
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
ISSN
0022-3514
Publication Date
6-1997
Abstract
Social identity theory predicts that perceivers strongly identified with an in-group will maximize the distinction and maintain a clear boundary between their own and other groups by categorizing others' membership accurately. Two experiments tested the prediction that racially prejudiced individuals, who presumably identify highly with their racial in-group, are more motivated to make accurate racial categorizations than nonprejudiced individuals. Results indicated that prejudiced participants not only took longer to categorize race-ambiguous targets (Experiments 1 and 2), but also made more nonverbal vocalizations when presented with them (Experiment 1), suggesting response hesitation. The results support the hypothesis that, compared to nonprejudiced individuals, prejudiced individuals concern themselves with accurate identification of in-group and out-group members and use caution when making racial categorizations.
DOI
10.1037/0022-3514.72.6.1364
Volume
72
Issue
6
First Page
1364
Last Page
1372
NSUWorks Citation
Blascovich, J.,
Wyer, N. A.,
Kibler, J. L.
(1997). Racism and Racial Categorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(6), 1364-1372.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/662
