Symbols of pride or prejudice? Examining the impact of Native American sports mascots on stereotype application

For over 50 years, a debate has existed over the use of Native American sports mascots; however, few empirical studies on the topic exist. The present study examined if supraliminal exposure to Native American mascots results in the application of negative stereotypes toward Native American people....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of social psychology 2017-01, Vol.157 (2), p.223-235
Main Authors: Burkley, Melissa, Burkley, Edward, Andrade, Angela, Bell, Angela C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Female
Humans
Indians, North American
Male
Mascots
Native Americans
Native North Americans
Prejudice
Racial Attitudes
Racism
Racism - ethnology
Resistance (Psychology)
Social psychology
Sports
Stereotypes
Stereotyping
United States - ethnology
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:For over 50 years, a debate has existed over the use of Native American sports mascots; however, few empirical studies on the topic exist. The present study examined if supraliminal exposure to Native American mascots results in the application of negative stereotypes toward Native American people. Results indicated that the effect of Native American mascots was moderated by people's racial attitudes toward Native people. When exposed to Native mascots, people with a prejudiced attitude rated a Native American individual more stereotypically aggressive than those with a non-prejudiced attitude. However, this pattern did not occur when people were exposed to White mascots or neutral images. Furthermore, this pattern was not evident when people evaluated a non-Native individual. This overall pattern of results indicates that Native American mascots selectively facilitate the application of negative stereotypes, resulting in harmful evaluations of Native American people.
ISSN:0022-4545
1940-1183
DOI:10.1080/00224545.2016.1208142