To Be or Not to Be (Black or Multiracial or White)

Culture shapes the meaning of race and, consequently, who is placed into which racial categories. Three experiments conducted in the United States and Brazil illustrated the cultural nature of racial categorization. In Experiment 1, a target’s racial ancestry influenced Americans’ categorizations bu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social psychological & personality science 2018-09, Vol.9 (7), p.763-772
Main Authors: Chen, Jacqueline M, de Paula Couto Maria Clara P, Sacco, Airi M, Dunham Yarrow
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cues
Cultural differences
Experiments
Meaning
Physical characteristics
Race
Reliance
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Summary:Culture shapes the meaning of race and, consequently, who is placed into which racial categories. Three experiments conducted in the United States and Brazil illustrated the cultural nature of racial categorization. In Experiment 1, a target’s racial ancestry influenced Americans’ categorizations but had no impact on Brazilians’ categorizations. Experiment 2 showed cultural differences in the reliance on two phenotypic cues to race; Brazilians’ categorizations were more strongly determined by skin tone than were Americans’ categorizations, and Americans’ categorizations were more strongly determined by other facial features compared to Brazilians' categorizations. Experiment 3 demonstrated cultural differences in the motivated use of racial categories. When the racial hierarchy was threatened, only Americans more strictly enforced the Black–White racial boundary. Cultural forces shape the conceptual, perceptual, and ideological construal of racial categories.
ISSN:1948-5506
1948-5514
DOI:10.1177/1948550617725149