Effects of Participant Ethnicity, Target Physiognomy, and Target Gender on College Students’ Judgments of Cheating

Abstract

History and some research suggest that the degree of prejudice by Whites as well as within the African American community is related to the extent of African physical characteristics and the gender of the target. The goal of our experiment was to determine if White and non-White males and females would judge targets differently based on the target’s physiognomy and gender. Participants were divided into eight groups, each judging photographs depicting a different level of target physiognomy and gender (European, mixed, moderately African, and extremely African males and females) following presentation of a false scenario about the target’s having been caught cheating. Although Whites’ratings did not differ according to target physiognomy, non-Whites favored more African targets.

Use of an Intersectional Framework to Understand Black Women’s Racial and Gender Identities

“…Such reports are consistent with research that shows that black women are perceived and treated differently by other black people based on such factors (e.g., Breland, 1998;M. E. Hill, 2002;O'Neal, Medlin, Walker, & Jones, 2002;Thompson & Keith, 2001). This isolation from other group members seemed to be particularly difficult for these women, perhaps because it was less expected than isolation from white people or men.…”

A 12-Year Content Analysis of the Journal of Black Psychology (2000-2011)

“…For example, some researchers were interested in racial or ethnic differences, and thus used a racial comparative framework with either no reference to Black psychology literature (e.g., Weathers, Frank, & Spell, 2002) or minimal reference to Black psychology literature (e.g., Glanville & Nowicki, 2002). Other researchers used a social psychological framework of prejudice to examine attitudes toward Blacks with a predominantly White sample (e.g., O'Neal, Medlin, Walker, & Jones, 2002). Some researchers offered technically and theoretically sophisticated articles, but the explicit links to the field of Black psychology were less apparent (e.g., Madhere, Harrell, & Royal, 2009).…”