Differential social perception and attribution of intergroup violence: Testing the lower limits of stereotyping of Blacks.

Abstract

In a modified 4 X 4 factorial design with race (black-white) of the harm-doer and race (black-white) of the victim as the major factors, the phenomenon of differential social perception of intergroup violence was established. While subjects, observing a videotape of purported ongoing ineraction occuring in another room, labeled an act (ambiguous shove) as more violent when it was performed by a black than when the same act was perpetrated by a white. That is, the concept of violence was more accessible when viewing a black than when viewing a white committing the same act. Causal attributions were also found to be divergent. Situation attributions were preferred when the harm-doer was white, and person (dispositional) attributions were preferred in the black-protagonist conditions. The results are discussed in terms of perceptual threshold, sterotypy, and attributional biases.

Cites (2)

1. Perception and the Representative Design of Psychological Experiments
   Brunswik, Egon · 1956
2. The attribution of attitudes
   Jones, Edward E, Harris, Victor A · 1967 · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Show all 2 references

Cited by (44)

1. Social psychology of intergroup relations
   Tajfel, H · 1982 · Annual Review of Psychology
2. Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises
   Nickerson, Raymond S. · 1998 · Review of General Psychology
3. Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components
   Devine, Patricia G. · 1989 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
4. Stereotype Threat and Women's Math Performance
   Spencer, Steven J., Steele, Claude M., Quinn, Diane M. · 1999 · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
5. The effect of patient race and socio-economic status on physicians' perceptions of patients
   van Ryn, Michelle, Burke, Jane · 2000 · Social Science & Medicine

See all 712