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Freeman JB, Penner AM, Saperstein A, et al. Looking the part: social status cues shape race perception. PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e25107doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025107.
Freeman, J. B., Penner, A. M., Saperstein, A., Scheutz, M., & Ambady, N. (2011). Looking the part: social status cues shape race perception. PloS one, 6(9), e25107. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025107
Freeman, Jonathan B, et al. "Looking the part: social status cues shape race perception." PloS one vol. 6,9 (2011): e25107. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025107
Freeman JB, Penner AM, Saperstein A, Scheutz M, Ambady N. Looking the part: social status cues shape race perception. PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e25107. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025107. Epub 2011 Sep 26. PMID: 21977227; PMCID: PMC3180382.
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PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e25107. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025107. Epub 2011 Sep 26.

Looking the part: social status cues shape race perception.

PloS one

Jonathan B Freeman, Andrew M Penner, Aliya Saperstein, Matthias Scheutz, Nalini Ambady

Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States of America. [email protected]

PMID: 21977227 PMCID: PMC3180382 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025107

Abstract

It is commonly believed that race is perceived through another's facial features, such as skin color. In the present research, we demonstrate that cues to social status that often surround a face systematically change the perception of its race. Participants categorized the race of faces that varied along White-Black morph continua and that were presented with high-status or low-status attire. Low-status attire increased the likelihood of categorization as Black, whereas high-status attire increased the likelihood of categorization as White; and this influence grew stronger as race became more ambiguous (Experiment 1). When faces with high-status attire were categorized as Black or faces with low-status attire were categorized as White, participants' hand movements nevertheless revealed a simultaneous attraction to select the other race-category response (stereotypically tied to the status cue) before arriving at a final categorization. Further, this attraction effect grew as race became more ambiguous (Experiment 2). Computational simulations then demonstrated that these effects may be accounted for by a neurally plausible person categorization system, in which contextual cues come to trigger stereotypes that in turn influence race perception. Together, the findings show how stereotypes interact with physical cues to shape person categorization, and suggest that social and contextual factors guide the perception of race.

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