The impact of social norms on navigating race in a racially diverse context

Chanel Meyers, Amanda Williams, Kristin Pauker, Evan P Apfelbaum

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
158 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

To date, research has primarily focused on the colorblind norms and
behaviors of majority-White participants in majority-White contexts.
Extending this work to more diverse samples and contexts, across four
studies we examine whether colorblind norms link to the colorblind
behavior of racially diverse participants living in a racially diverse (i.e.,
heterogeneous) context. Findings suggest that participants living in a
racially diverse context did not endorse colorblind beliefs (Study 1) and
norms (Study 2) and instead behave in race-conscious ways and
overwhelmingly use race in a photo-identification task. Furthermore, in
Study 3 we find that colorblind norms are largely activated by the belief
that talking about race is prejudiced. When participants were exposed to
a social norm that linked talking about race to prejudice, colorblind
behavior became more prevalent. Finally, in Study 4, we see that greater
diversity of one’s context is correlated to less endorsement of
colorblindness.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages18
JournalGroup Processes and Intergroup Relations
Early online date10 Apr 2021
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 10 Apr 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by SPSSI grant-in-aids awarded to the first and second author.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.

Research Groups and Themes

  • SoE Centre for Psychological Approaches for Studying Education

Keywords

  • colorblindness
  • race
  • social norms
  • racial diversity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The impact of social norms on navigating race in a racially diverse context'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this