Facial Structure Is Indicative of Explicit Support for Prejudicial Beliefs

We present three studies examining whether male facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is correlated with racial prejudice and whether observers are sensitive to fWHR when assessing prejudice in other people. Our results indicate that males with a greater fWHR are more likely to explicitly endorse raci...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2013-03, Vol.24 (3), p.289-296
Main Authors: Hehman, Eric, Leitner, Jordan B., Deegan, Matthew P., Gaertner, Samuel L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
African Americans
Anthropometry - methods
Belief & doubt
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Continental Population Groups - ethnology
Continental Population Groups - psychology
Correlation analysis
Face
Facial scarification
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Group membership
Human aggression
Humans
Male
Men
Minority & ethnic groups
Motivation
Personality psychology
Prejudice
Prejudices
Psychological assessment
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Racial prejudice
Racism - ethnology
Racism - psychology
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social participation
Social Perception
Social psychology
Testosterone
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We present three studies examining whether male facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is correlated with racial prejudice and whether observers are sensitive to fWHR when assessing prejudice in other people. Our results indicate that males with a greater fWHR are more likely to explicitly endorse racially prejudicial beliefs, though fWHR was unrelated to implicit bias. Participants evaluated targets with a greater fWHR as more likely to be prejudiced and accurately evaluated the degree to which targets reported prejudicial attitudes. Finally, compared with majority-group members, racial-minority participants reported greater motivation to accurately evaluate prejudice. This motivation mediated the relationship between minority- or majority-group membership and the accuracy of evaluations of prejudice, which indicates that motivation augments sensitivity to fWHR. Together, the results of these three studies demonstrate that fWHR is a reliable indicator of explicitly endorsed racial prejudice and that observers can use fWHR to accurately assess another person's explicit prejudice.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797612451467