Investigating hair cues as a mechanism underlying Black women’s intersectional invisibility.

Abstract

Children psychologically exclude Black women from their representations of women, but the mechanisms underlying this marginalization remain unclear. Across two studies (N = 129; 49 boys, 78 girls, two gender unreported; 79 White, 27 Black, six Latinx, five Asian, and 12 unreported), the present work tests hair texture as one possible perceptual mechanism by which this might occur. In both studies, children gendercategorized Black, White, and Asian men and women using MouseTracker. Children were slower and had more complex patterns in categorizing Black women when they had textured hair (Study 1A), but not when they had straight hair (Study 1B). Implications for the development of gender as a social category are discussed. Public Significance StatementChildren during early childhood are slower to gender-categorize Black women pictured wearing natural hairstyles, but not Black women pictured wearing straightened hairstyles. These results highlight how prototypes of femalehood are biased against Black women, which may have important social and health consequences.