Hair penalties: The negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism

Women are penalized if they do not behave in a stereotype-congruent manner (Heilman, 1983,2001; Eagly and Carli, 2007). For example, because women are not expected to be agentic they incur an “agency penalty” for expressing anger, dominance or assertiveness (Rudman, 1998; Rudman and Glick, 1999, 2001; Eagly and Karau, 2002; Rudman and Fairchild, 2004; Brescoll and Uhlmann, 2008; Livingston et al., 2012). Yet, all women are not equally penalized (Livingston et al., 2012). We make a novel contribution by examining how both White and Black evaluators respond to displays of Black women’s dominance, in this case, whether Black women choose to wear Afrocentric or Eurocentric hairstyles.

We conducted three experimental studies to examine the influence of target hairstyle and participant race on ratings of the target’s professionalism (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and dominance (Study 2). Study 1 was an online experimental study with 200 participants (112 females, 87 males, 1 missing gender; 160 Whites, 19 Blacks, 11 Latinos, 7 Asian Americans and 3 who identify as “other”; M_age = 35.5,SD = 11.4). Study 2 was an online experimental study with 510 participants (276 women, 234 males; 256 Blacks, 254 Whites; M_age = 41.25 years, SD = 12.21). Study 3 was an online experimental study with 291 participants (141 Blacks, 150 Whites, M_age = 47.5 years, SD = 11.66).

Black, as compared to White, evaluators gave higher agency penalties to Black employment candidates when they donned Afrocentric versus Eurocentric hair, rating them as more dominant and less professional.

The present research illustrates the significance of considering both target and evaluator race when examining the influence of agency, and specifically dominance, on ratings of professionalism.

Below:  Images used in studies

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By: Tina R. Opie1,* and Katherine W. Phillips2

²

1Management Division, Babson College, Babson Park, MA, USA

2Management Division, Columbia Business School, New York, NY, USA

1Management Division, Babson College, Babson Park, MA, USA

Intoxicated Prejudice: The Impact of Alcohol Consumption on Implicitly & Explicitly Measured Racial Attitudes

Below:  Scatter plot of participants' IAT D-scores and explicit attitudes with separate fit lines for each beverage group; higher scores indicate greater negativity towards African Americans

Recent research has shown that alcohol consumption can exacerbate expressions of racial bias by increasing reliance on stereotypes. However, little work has investigated how alcohol affects intergroup evaluations. The current work sought to address the issue in the context of the correspondence between implicit and explicit measures of anti-black attitudes. Participants were randomly assigned to consume an alcoholic (target BAC of 0.08%), placebo, or control beverage prior to completing implicit and explicit measures of racial attitudes. Although beverage condition did not affect prejudice levels on either measure, it did change the correlation between them. Implicitly measured attitudes significantly predicted explicit reports of prejudice and discrimination only for participants who consumed alcohol. We discuss the implications of our findings for debates regarding dissociations between implicit and explicit measures and the cultural phenomenon of intoxicated individuals attributing prejudiced statements to alcohol consumption rather than personal attitudes.

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