Social NeuroscienceStereotyping & Prejudice

Race & EmotionBrenda KopariJamie Renspe

Mind & Body ConnectionJune 8th, 2007

The Social Neuroscience of Stereotyping and Prejudice

Ito et al, 2006How social category information is

perceived?How this information, in conjunction

with stereotypes, influences behavior?

StereotypingIf we categorize an individual as

belonging to a particular social group, stereotypical beliefs and prejudicial reactions associated with the entire group can become activatedThis information can influence how we

respond to an individual

Is stereotype activation decreased at lower levels of

analysis?Encoding of category membership is

attenuated; blocking activation of stereotypes and prejudice

Category membership is encoded, but activation of stereotypes and prejudice is attenuated

Category membership is encoded and stereotypes and prejudice are activated, but their application is attenuated

Prior methods of researchParticipants viewed pictures of black

and white males and females

Identify as introverted or extroverted

Indicated what vegetables the people in the pictures would like

Findings of Prior Research

Increasing the visual complexity slowed down the process of racial and gender stereotyping

Directing participants’ attention to other social cues does not inhibit racial and gender perceptions

Current StudyPart I

How does race influence the detection of weapons in a first person shooter game?

Participants viewed white or black men holding a gun or an insignificant object

Told to shoot armed targets and not shoot unarmed targets

FindingsConsistent bias against blacks

More accurate and faster in shooting armed blacks compared to armed whites

Faster and more accurate in not shooting unarmed whites compared to unarmed blacks

Unarmed blacks were more likely to be erroneously shot than unarmed whites

Findings ContinuedShooting a person who is not

associated with violence (white) generated the greatest conflict

Shooting someone stereotypically associated with violence (black) was not more problematic than not shooting himShooting a black person did not create

conflict regardless of their arms

Current Study Part II

Increased time allowance for response of the video game study

FindingsParticipants were faster to shoot

armed blacks compared to armed whites

They were faster to NOT shoot unarmed whites compared to unarmed blacks

Discussion QuestionsOut of the three white people how

many had guns?Out of the two black people how

many had guns?Do you think stereotyping and

prejudice are of your own free will?Automatic response?

Race & EmotionTo understand others successfully

you need to recognize how they feelTone of voice Facial expressions

Racial or Cultural Experience

Social experience can moderate how well one can recognize emotions

Differences are possibly why difficulties arise during interracial interactions

Origins of Emotion Recognition

Evidence that being able to express and recognize emotions in peoples faces has evolutionary roots, it is shared across cultures, and has dedicated neural machinery

Origins of Emotion Recognition

Innate human ability to express and recognize emotions in a person’s faceKnow if positive or negative expressionInnate

For example, children who are blind and deaf still communicate their emotions with similar facial expressions as other children (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1970)

Also, people from other cultures can recognize facial expressions at above chance levels of accuracy (Ekman, 1992)

Role of Brain:The Limbic System

AmygdalaPerception, detection and recognition of

fearful facial expressionsMedial Frontal Gyri

Recognizing angry expressionsBasal Ganglia

Engaged during recognition of happy expressions

Role of BrainHow do these regions of the brain

interact during emotion recognition?Neural processes associated with

recognition of emotions occur earlyFor example, perceiving fear in facial

expressions modulates neural responses in frontocentral regions at about 120msec (Eimer & Holmes, 2002)

Social Experience Influences the Process of Emotion

RecognitionFace

Social information like age, gender and race influence how you see yourself and how others see youAgain, you can recognize emotions in faces

from all cultures fairly accurately, but you recognize emotions most accurately with members of the same cultural group

Possibly because different levels of familiarity know own culture more

Race and the BrainPrevious Research

Examine neutral (no emotion) faces of different races

Both race and emotion likely to influence neural and behavioral responses

N. Ambady et al. conducted fMRIs and ERPs Showed the impact of race on emotional

processing Influence of emotional expression on

evaluation of in-group and out-group members

Prior ResearchDoes race affect brain

processes during emotion recognition?Chiao et al. (2004)

fMRI in 8 Caucasians (4 men, 4 women) Explicitly identified fear, anger and neutral

expressions in faces of Caucasians, Asian-Americans and African Americans (both men and women)

Each facial expression shown for 750 msecResponded within 2500 msec Prediction: Would recognize all expressions,

but most accurate at recognizing faces of the same race

FindingsAll expressions recognized at better than

chance levelsCaucasians recognized neutral faces

better than fearful and angry facesAlso better at recognizing emotions (fear and

anger) in Caucasian and Asian Americans more so than African Americans

Neural regions specifically involved in fear and anger show differences in signal change depending on the race of the person expressing the emotion

FindingsNeuroimaging

Greater amygdala activity in response to Caucasian and Asian American faces

Caucasian expressions of anger elicited increased signal change in medial front cortex

HypothesisRace of facial target would influence basic

structural face processing about 170 msec after stimulus onsetCan observe this in the amplitude of the Vertex

Positive Potential (VPP)Emotional expression being processed

would affect the extent to which race influenced neural processingSelf-report exposure to races Most exposure to CaucasiansLeast to African Americans

FindingsDetected angry expressions most

accurately in African Americans and Caucasians

Recognized fear most accurately in Caucasians

Neutral faces recognized equally across the races

Findings continuedVPP amplitude sensitive to race and

emotion of faceGreater for African American faces regardless

of emotion being expressedNeuroimaging and ERP data suggest that

race affects brain processes involved in recognizing fear and angerRegions important in recognition of fear and

anger show modulation of signal change based on the race of expressor

Not all out-group faces processed alike Why?

The emotional expression of a racially salient target influences processing of different out-group members at not only the behavioral but also the physiological level

StudiedCortical and behavioral responses of

high and low prejudiced individuals to in-group and out-group emotional stimuli

Employed an active evaluation task Participants were asked to make a socially

relevant judgment regarding in-group and out-group members

Do I want to work with this person?

FindingsHigh and low prejudiced individuals are

differently influenced by the affective relevance of in-group and out-group membersAffective nature of target stimuli may be especially

salient for low prejudiced individualsLow prejudiced individuals showed an increased

contingent negative variation (CNV) to angry out-group stimuli and in anticipation of angry faces

Supports idea that individuals monitor automatic reactions to negative stereotypes elicited by out-group stimuli

High Prejudice GroupsShowed decrease in CNV in anticipation of

angry Black targets compared with all other targets

Showed enhanced CNV in anticipation of happy White facesExtra effort to make individuating responses

when required to evaluate in-group stimuliSupports ideas that those high in prejudice

have less of a motivation or need to monitor prejudice responsesAbsence of effort to suppress prejudice

FindingsCNV amplitudes illustrate low

prejudiced individuals show greater cortical activity to angry Black targets

Evidence raced based information may trigger a societally constrained conceptual representation of race but also the manifestation of prejudice depends on how individuals process this information

FindingsFacial expressions of emotion affect

both neural and behavioral responses to in-group and out-group faces

DiscussionWhat emotions are these people

portraying?Would you want to work with this

person?

DiscussionCan you control your reactions to

different faces and races?Even though there are equal

opportunity employers, do you think that the people hiring can suppress their prejudices? High versus Low Prejudiced People