Positioning Asian Americans in Social Cognition

Abstract

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S., yet extant theories and approaches in social psychology (and social cognition specifically) may not adequately capture how Asian Americans are perceived and treated in the American racial landscape. We propose three directions to propel social cognition research on Asian Americans forward. First, research emphasizes Asian Americans’ perceived high status (i.e., model minority stereotypes) while often overlooking their perceived foreignness. The two-dimensional Racial Position Model elucidates the consequences of being stereotyped as perpetual foreigners for Asian Americans and their relations with other racial and ethnic groups. Second, research and laypeople alike consider East Asian Americans to be prototypical Asian Americans, thereby excluding subgroups such as South and Southeast Asian Americans. Considering the ethnic diversity of Asian Americans challenges and extends existing social psychological theories. Lastly, much of psychological research approaches race in isolation without considering its intersection with other identities such as gender. An intersectional framework offers insights into how Asian Americans’ gender and race overlap in our social cognition. More nuanced research on Asian Americans is needed to fully understand race relations in the 21st century and we hope these three interconnected directions can guide researchers who are interested in the topic.

Pervasive and Pernicious Underestimation of Asian Americans’ Support for Affirmative Action

“…Asian Americans are increasingly positioned in the center of national news and political discourses (Goh et al, 2023;Lee & Sheng, 2023;Poon et al, 2019). As such, it is pertinent to understand not only Asian Americans' stances on different issues like affirmative action but also how others (mis)perceive Asian Americans' policy support, as well as the possible consequences of underestimating or seeing Asian Americans' positions.…”

“…This may be because White Americans simply do not pay much attention to Asian Americans and their actual stances. Asian Americans are perceived as perpetual foreigners in the US (Devos & Banaji, 2005;Goh et al, 2023;Yogeeswaran & Dasgupta, 2010;Zou & Cheryan, 2017), and White Americans may not consider these supposed foreigners' opinions on American policies to be particularly relevant or worthwhile. This could explain White people's consistent miscalibration of Asian Americans' support for affirmative action in Studies 1-2, as well as the limited influence of Asian Americans' attitudes on White people's own attitudes about affirmative action in Studies 3-5.…”

“…Disaggregation is key to understanding the diversity of Asian American communities (Goh et al, 2023;Yip et al, 2021). Although the SFFA positions itself as representing all Asian Americans, it is largely supported by Edward Blum and a small group of Chinese Americans (Kim, 2018).…”

Intersectionality in Educational Psychology and Curriculum Studies: A Critical Review

“…Intersectionality, as an analytical lens, has been adopted to theorize around identity and other educational constructs for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) communities. It could explain why Asian Americans are often portrayed as feminine, as historically Asian men were forced into occupations that were stereotypically women's work after the completion of the transcontinental railroad (Lei et al, 2023) and how gendered stereotypes are invoked to maintain the racist status quo (Goh et al, 2023). In addition, being portrayed as hyper-feminine subjects East Asian women lead to tremendous DOI: 10.2147/exr Available online at Journals.aijr.org…”

“…disadvantage in contexts that emphasize masculinity and contests (Goh et al, 2023). Intersectionality has been employed to examine AAPI students' sense of belonging: South Asian ninth graders had higher sense of belonging compared to other AAPI ethnic groups across all socioeconomic backgrounds while gender and East Asian origins intersected and produced a much more nuanced pattern (Jang, 2023).…”