Prejudice and perception: The role of automatic and controlled processes in misperceiving a weapon.

Abstract

Two experiments used a priming paradigm to investigate the influence of racial cues on the perceptual identification of weapons. In Experiment 1, participants identified guns faster when primed with Black faces compared with White faces. In Experiment 2, participants were required to respond quickly, causing the racial bias to shift from reaction time to accuracy. Participants misidentified tools as guns more often when primed with a Black face than with a White face. L. L. Jacoby's (1991) process dissociation procedure was applied to demonstrate that racial primes influenced automatic (A) processing, but not controlled (C) processing. The response deadline reduced the C estimate but not the A estimate. The motivation to control prejudice moderated the relationship between explicit prejudice and automatic bias. Implications are discussed on applied and theoretical levels.

Cites (6)

1. Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory
   Shiffrin, Richard M., Schneider, Walter · 1977 · Psychological Review
2. Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes
   Greenwald, Anthony G., Banaji, Mahzarin R. · 1995 · Psychological Review
3. Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components
   Devine, Patricia G. · 1989 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
4. A model of dual attitudes.
   Wilson, Timothy D., Lindsey, Samuel, Schooler, Tonya Y. · 2000 · Psychological Review
5. Multiple Processes by which Attitudes Guide Behavior: The Mode Model as an Integrative Framework
   Fazio, Russell H. · 1990 · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
6. Mental contamination and mental correction: Unwanted influences on judgments and evaluations.
   Wilson, Timothy D., Brekke, Nancy · 1994 · Psychological Bulletin

Show all 6 references

Cited by (55)

1. An inkblot for attitudes: Affect misattribution as implicit measurement.
   Payne, B. Keith, Cheng, Clara Michelle, Govorun, Olesya, Stewart, Brandon D. · 2005 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
2. Long-term reduction in implicit race bias: A prejudice habit-breaking intervention
   Devine, Patricia G., Forscher, Patrick S., Austin, Anthony J., Cox, William T.L. · 2012 · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
3. Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing.
   Eberhardt, Jennifer L., Goff, Phillip Atiba, Purdie, Valerie J., Davies, Paul G. · 2004 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
4. The police officer's dilemma: Using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals.
   Correll, Joshua, Park, Bernadette, Judd, Charles M., Wittenbrink, Bernd · 2002 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
5. A meta-analysis of procedures to change implicit measures
   Forscher, Patrick S., Lai, Calvin K., Axt, Jordan R., Ebersole, Charles R., Herman, Michelle, Devine, Patricia G., Nosek, Brian A. · 2019 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

See all 1,150