PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Educated black men remembered as 'whiter'

2014-01-14
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Camille Gamboa
camille.gamboa@sagepub.com
805-410-7441
SAGE Publications
Educated black men remembered as 'whiter'

Los Angeles, CA (January 14, 2014) A new study out today in SAGE Open finds that instead of breaking stereotypes, intellectually successful Black individuals may be susceptible to being remembered as "Whiter" and therefore 'exceptions to their race,' perpetuating cultural beliefs about race and intelligence. This new study shows that a Black man who is associated with being educated is remembered as being lighter in skin tone than he actually is, a phenomenon the study authors refer to as "skin tone memory bias."

"When a Black stereotypic expectancy is violated (herein, encountering an educated Black male), this culturally incompatible information is resolved by distorting this person's skin tone to be lighter in memory and therefore to be perceived as "Whiter," the main researcher, Avi Ben-Zeev, stated.

Researchers Avi Ben-Zeev, Tara Dennehy, Robin Goodrich, Branden Kolarik, and Mark Geisler conducted a two-part experiment with a total of 160 university students. In the first experiment, participants were briefly exposed to one of two words subliminally: "ignorant" or "educated," followed immediately by a photograph of a Black man's face. Later, participants were shown seven photos that depicted the same face – the original as well as three with darker skin tones and three with lighter skin tones. They were asked to determine which of these seven photographs was identical to the one that they had originally seen.

The researchers found that participants who were primed subliminally with the word "educated" demonstrated significantly more memory errors attached to lighter skin tones (identifying even the lightest photo as being identical to the original) than those primed subliminally with the word "ignorant." This skin tone memory bias was replicated in experiment two.

"Uncovering a skin tone memory bias, such that an educated Black man becomes lighter in the mind's eye, has grave implications," Avi Ben-Zeev stated. "We already know from past researchers about the disconcerting tendency to harbor more negative attitudes about people with darker complexions (e.g., the darker a Black male is, the more aggressive he is perceived to be). A skin tone memory bias highlights how memory protects this 'darker is more negative' belief by distorting counter-stereotypic Black individuals' skin tone to appear lighter and perhaps to be perceived as less threatening."



INFORMATION:

Find out more by reading the article, "When an 'Educated' Black Man Becomes Lighter in the Mind's Eye: Evidence for a Skin Tone Memory Bias." For an embargoed copy, email camille.gamboa@sagepub.com.

SAGE Open is an award-winning, peer-reviewed, "Gold" open access journal from SAGE that publishes original research and review articles in an interactive, open access format. Articles may span the full spectrum of the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities. http://sgo.sagepub.com/

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Social experience drives empathetic, pro-social behavior in rats

2014-01-14
Social experience drives empathetic, pro-social behavior in rats Rats will help a stranger in distress only if they have had prior social experience with the type of the unfamiliar individual ...

Bald reef gets new growth with seaweed transplant

2014-01-14
Bald reef gets new growth with seaweed transplant SYDNEY: Marine ecologists in Sydney have successfully restored a once thriving seaweed species, which vanished along a stretch of the city's coastline during the 1970s and 80s during high levels of ...

Mitochondrial genes matter!

2014-01-14
Mitochondrial genes matter! Contrary to common belief, mitochondrial genes seem to matter for how well individuals survive and reproduce. These new results are reported by researchers at Uppsala University, Sweden, who studied the genes of a common beetle ...

Patients with multiple sclerosis in Taiwan may be at increased risk of developing cancer

2014-01-14
Patients with multiple sclerosis in Taiwan may be at increased risk of developing cancer Individuals with multiple sclerosis may have an increased risk of developing any type of cancer, with an especially high risk of developing breast cancer. That is the conclusion of a ...

New research on sauropod gigantism summarized in publicly available collection

2014-01-14
New research on sauropod gigantism summarized in publicly available collection Giants of Earth's history still pose a wealth of riddles / Publication in PLOS ONE Sauropods, the largest land animals in Earth's history, are still ...

Molecular nano-spies to make light work of disease detection

2014-01-14
Molecular nano-spies to make light work of disease detection A world of cloak-and-dagger pharmaceuticals has come a step closer with the development of stealth compounds programmed to spring into action when they receive the ...

Do cultural differences determine outcome of our activities?

2014-01-14
Do cultural differences determine outcome of our activities? Not necessarily, say researchers Jerusalem, January 14, 2014 -- A generally held assumption in various academic disciplines is that the way people perform various everyday activities – ...

Cell division discovery could offer fresh insight into cancer

2014-01-14
Cell division discovery could offer fresh insight into cancer New findings on how the cells in our bodies are able to renew themselves could aid our understanding of health disorders, including cancer. Scientists have explained a key part of the process ...

Physical reason for chromosome shape discovered

2014-01-14
Physical reason for chromosome shape discovered This work gives a solution to a fundamental question in structural biology: Why do metaphase chromosomes have their characteristic elongated cylindrical shape? The proposed solution is consistent ...

What makes superalloys super -- hierarchical microstructure of a superalloy

2014-01-14
What makes superalloys super -- hierarchical microstructure of a superalloy Researchers have observed for the first time in detail how a hierarchical microstructure develops during heat treatment of a superalloy This ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

A new method to build more energy-efficient memory devices for a sustainable data future

Freely levitating rotor spins out ultraprecise sensors for classical and quantum physics

‘Chinese lantern’ structure shifts into more than a dozen shapes for various applications

Towards light-controlled electronic components

Tiny architects, titanic climate impact: scientists call for October 10 to become International Coccolithophore Day

Stress sensitivity makes suicidal thoughts more extreme and persistent among the university population

Lessons from Ascension’s shark troubles could help boost conservation

Fire provides long-lasting benefits to bird populations in Sierra Nevada National Parks

Menstrual cycle affects women’s reaction time but not as much as being active

Housing associations more effective than government in supporting unemployed in deprived areas

Biochar helps composting go greener by cutting greenhouse gas emissions

Ulrich named president-elect of the AACI

Multitasking makes you more likely to fall for phishing emails

Researchers solve model that can improve sustainable design, groundwater management, nuclear waste storage, and more

Parched soils can spark hot drought a nation away

Uncovering new physics in metals manufacturing

Sped-up evolution may help bacteria take hold in gut microbiome, UCLA-led research team finds

The dose-dependent effects of dissolved biochar on C. elegans: Insights into the physiological and transcriptomic responses

New research reveals genetic link to most common pediatric bone cancer

Research conducted during 2024 eclipse reveals importance of light on bird behavior

Why does female fertility decline so fast? The key is the ovary

Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds

Europe’s largest bats hunt and eat migrating birds on the wing, high in the sky

China’s emerging AI regulation could foster an open and safe future for AI

The secret to naked mole-rat’s longevity: Enhanced DNA repair

Acidic tumor environment promotes survival and growth of cancer cells

New biosensor tracks plants’ immune hormone in real time

New study finds gaps in REDD+ forest carbon offsets with most overstating climate impacts

Mystery solved: How Europe’s largest bat catches and eats passerines mid-air

Pan-disease atlas maps molecular fingerprints of health, disease and aging

[Press-News.org] Educated black men remembered as 'whiter'