Biases in the Perception of Barack Obama's Skin Tone

Abstract

White Americans higher in prejudice were less likely to vote for Barack Obama than other Americans. Recent research also demonstrated that supporters and opponents of Mr. Obama engaged in skin tone biases, i.e., they perceive Mr. Obama's skin tone as lighter or darker in line with more positive or negative views of him. Across two studies we hypothesized that skin tone biases occur as a function of two independent sources: racial prejudice, which is always related to skin tone bias, and political partisanship, which is related to skin tone bias primarily during elections. Study 1 assessed perceptions of Mr. Obama's skin tone shortly before and after the 2008 Presidential election, and shortly after the first inauguration. Study 2 assessed perceptions in the middle of his first term, immediately prior to the 2012 Presidential election, and 1 year into his second term in office. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that partisan skin tone bias was limited to the election period, whereas prejudice-based skin tone biases occurred independent from any election.With the election of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States, a racial barrier fell: For the first time, an African American and a biracial individual had been elected to the highest office in the land. 1 However, as recent research demonstrates, Mr. Obama's election did not signify an end of racial bias with implicit and explicit racism being a major predictor as to whether voters supported ].We are indebted to Kevin Lanning for his editorial guidance as well as three anonymous reviewers whose insights and criticism helped to improve this article. We gratefully acknowledge the counsel of Michael Webster who inspired the Study 2 paradigm. 1 Barack Obama is the son of a White American mother and an African father, and this mixedrace parentage is likely responsible for his middling skin tone, which is the focus of the present research. However, Mr. Obama tends to identify himself as African American, and his race tends to be categorized by the majority of the U.S. population in the same way. Therefore, this article will refer to him as African American.

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