Conceptual and visual representations of racial categories: Distinguishing subtypes from subgroups

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Abstract

While much of the person perception literature has focused solely on the representation of superordinate social categories (e.g., race and age), these superordinate social categories may be organized into smaller subcategories (i.e., subtypes and subgroups) that can be distinguished by their perceived typicality. Based on the logic that atypical subcategories represent subtypes and typical subcategories represent subgroups, we hypothesized that some subcategory labels would elicit greater perceived stereotypicality compared to others. In Experiment 1, participants listed stereotypic traits and rated the perceived typicality of subcategories of Black and White men. In Experiment 2 we used a reverse correlation image classification procedure to estimate participants' visual representations of the faces of Black and White superordinate category and subcategory members. Results indicated that representations of Black subgroups reflected traits and features more prototypical of Black men compared to representations of Black subtypes. Similarly, representations of White subgroups reflected traits and features more prototypical of White men compared to representations of White subtypes. The current experiments further clarify the nature of subcategory representations as subgroups and subtypes within the superordinate category. Implications for stereotype maintenance and change are considered.

Introduction

Social psychologists have largely examined the processes that guide social perception and judgment as they relate to the activation of broad bases of social categorization like race, age, and gender. While these categories provide a great deal of explanatory power in describing the bases of person perception (Macrae, Quinn, Mason, & Quadflieg, 2005), explorations of these broad social categories alone may not provide a full understanding of the processes that guide stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Indeed, when forming an impression of a target, perceivers often use information beyond the superordinate category to increase judgment accuracy (Stangor, Lynch, Duan, & Glas, 1992). While much of the public discourse focused on addressing discrimination stays at the level of broad social categories, more nuanced perspectives may be needed to understand and address the variability in the experiences of individuals. Reflecting this recognition are research programs exploring intersectionality (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008), phenotypicality bias (Maddox, 2004), and biracial perception (Pauker et al., 2009). With this investigation, we seek to elaborate on research exploring the nature of social category representations with a focus on race.

Section snippets

Superordinate vs. subordinate categories

After initially categorizing a target, a perceiver may be motivated to gather individuating information that will distinguish the target from other category members (Brewer, 1988, Fiske and Neuberg, 1990). This additional information about a category member may be incorporated into the perceiver's superordinate category representation, contributing to the formation of subcategories (Hewstone and Hamberger, 2000, Maurer et al., 1995, Queller and Smith, 2002). Examinations of natural categories

Overview: identifying subgroups and subtypes

Park, Wolsko, and Judd (2001) described three measures for establishing that subgrouping or subtyping has occurred: (1) confusion with other subgroup or subtype members, (2) degree of similarity between the target and other individuals in the group, and (3) degree of typicality of the target in relation to the superordinate category. Collectively, these three measures can estimate a target's identity as belonging to a subgroup or a subtype of a superordinate category. Here, by examining

Experiment 1: conceptual representations of racial subcategories

Experiment 1 was designed to replicate and extend earlier investigations of Black male subcategory representations (Devine and Baker, 1991, Green and Manzi, 2002, McCabe and Brannon, 2004) by examining stereotypic trait listings for several potential subcategories of Black men. Further extending that work, we also explored representations of White men and included a measure of perceived typicality for each subcategory.

Experiment 2: visual representations of racial subcategories

Park and colleagues (2001) argued that although typicality is a reliable indicator of subgrouping and subtyping, it is problematic in its invasiveness—asking participants to rate typicality draws their attention to disconfirming (or confirming) attributes of the target in relation to the superordinate category. Thus, the task itself may be prompting participants to subcategorize in a particular manner, rather than measuring their spontaneous mental processes. In Experiment 2 we sought

General discussion

This research examined the extent to which subcategories represent subgroups versus subtypes of naturally occurring social categories using both explicit and implicit measures of category typicality. Across two experiments and three independent measures of typicality we found evidence that representations of athlete and rapper subcategories represented subgroups of Black men, but subtypes of White men. Conversely, we found that representations of doctor and businessman subcategories represented

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