1. The Influence of Locational Context on Perceptions of Black Women
Dara Huggins
Under the advisory of Dr. John D. Dovidio
Yale University
Introduction
Results
Discussion
Although phenotypically Black and female, Black women are neither seen as prototypical of their race nor their gender (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008). Because of their non-prototypical identities, then, Black women may be perceived in relation to contextual factors, such as location (Wittenbrink, Judd, & Park, 2001). In order to investigate how locational context influences perception of Black women, this study asked participants to complete a gender and race categorization task with shifting locational contexts (gym, house, hair salon, business room, and grocery store).
Hypotheses:
The gym, house, and hair salon settings would cue gender stereotypes, thereby leading to Black women being most quickly categorized by gender.
Alternatively, the business room and grocery store settings would yield faster race categorization for Black female targets.
Regardless of locational context, Black women were expected to be processed more slowly than Black men or White women.
Given that there was no significant interaction between background condition, target race, and target gender, most of the original hypotheses were not supported. Background conditions did not significantly influence participants’ access to gendered or race-based stereotypes in such a way that influenced the speed with which they categorized Black women (or any other demographic). Nonetheless, the hypothesis that Black women would consistently be categorized more slowly than would White women or Black men was supported. This particular finding is consistent with previous literature on perceptions of Black women, as Black women’s identities tend to be processed more slowly by out-group members. This effect is, in part, because Blackness is often associated with masculinity (Goff, Thomas, & Jackson, 2008; Thomas, Dovidio, & West, 2014). This contributes to the perceived prototypicality of White women as “women”, leaving Black women on the categorical margins (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008).
Within the data, an interesting relationship between perceptions of Black women and White men emerged. If we recall, Black women, followed by White men, were processed most slowly. Bearing in mind the place of social privilege that White men hold, while also considering the relative social disadvantage that Black women experience, it is curious that these fundamentally opposite demographic groups would be similarly difficult to process. What this similarity may imply, however, is that the Black female and White male identity share two important features – distinctiveness and stability.  Yet, where White men might assume privileges through the distinctiveness of their identity, Black women are often conferred social injury. Whereas White men are seen as a cohesive, distinct entity, relatively void of salient, negative stereotypes, Black women are often viewed as a monolith – historically reduced to such tropes as the mammy, sapphire, and jezebel (West, 1995).
Paradoxically, then, White men and Black women are simultaneously hypo- and hyper-visible. Where one might fail to view them as members of their constituent demographic subcategories (hypo-visible), they become perceptually distinct from the greater population and assume identities as stereotypic extremes (hyper-visible). This might explain why, in practice, White men are treated as the norm, while Black women are treated as the ultimate social foil. In Black women being viewed as a fundamental manifestation of the “other”, then, they are denied accessibility to unqualified expressions of “self”. For this reason, Black women in society are expected to conform to social standards that are informed by stereotypical ideas of Whiteness and womanhood – both of which exclude the distinctive Black female identity.
Using response latency data from the gender-race categorization task, a 5 (photo background: gym, house, hair salon, business room, grocery store) X 2 (apparent race of target: Black or White) X 2 (apparent gender of target: male or female) analysis of variance showed no significant interaction between background condition, race of target, and gender of target; there was, however, a significant race by gender interaction, such that participants exhibited the greatest response latency when categorizing Black women, regardless of background condition (M = ms, SD = ms), F(1  , 131) = In addition, there was a main effect of race, such that participants were slower to categorize Black faces. This effect was moderated by the race by gender interaction (see figures below).
Response Latency (ms)
Methods
References
In this study, we presented online survey participants (n=136)  with photographs of White men, White women, Black men, and Black women in varying locational contexts. For each photo, participants quickly categorized the target as Black/White or male/female. This task was preceded by priming trials, which prepared participants to correctly identify the location being displayed.
Goff, P. A., Thomas, M. A., & Jackson, M. C. (2008). “Ain’t I a woman?”: Towards an
intersectional approach to person perception and group-based harms. Sex Roles, 59(5-6),
Purdie-Vaughns, V., & Eibach, R. P. (2008). Intersectional invisibility: The distinctive
advantages and disadvantages of multiple subordinate-group identities. Sex Roles, 59(5-6),
Thomas, E. L., Dovidio, J. F., & West, T. V. (2014). Lost in the categorical shuffle: Evidence for
the social non-prototypicality of Black women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority
Psychology, 20(3), 370.
West, C. M. (1995). Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel: Historical images of Black women and
their implications for psychotherapy. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice,
Training, 32(3), 458.
Wittenbrink, B., Judd, C. M., & Park, B. (2001). Spontaneous prejudice in context: variability
in automatically activated attitudes. Journal of personality and social psychology, 81(5), 815.
Race of Target
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Dr. Dovidio for his patience and mentorship. An additional thank you to the Mellon Mays-Bouchet Research Fellowship for their continued support.