Date Awarded
2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Psychology
Advisor
Cheryl L Dickter
Committee Member
Catherine Forestell
Committee Member
Joanna Schug
Committee Member
Meghan Sinton
Abstract
Racial minorities are increasingly growing in the United States and the racial category “multiracial” is one of the fastest growing racial minorities. Racial essentialism is the belief that race has an underlying property and is innate and biological. Many people with essentialist beliefs do not normally categorize individuals with a multiracial background as multiracial. The current study assessed how an essentialism manipulation affects the neural processing of minority race targets by White participants. Participants completed a categorization task and passive task looking at ambiguous and monoracial faces while connect to EEG. For the passive task, results revealed gradient by race by condition interactions for the N170, P2, and N4 components as well as race by gradient interactions for the P1, N2, P3, N3, and LPP components. Additionally, the category chosen for the target affected neural processing in the N3 component for the categorization condition. These findings demonstrate the need for continued research of the perception of multiracial individuals and continued attempts to reduce attentional bias.
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/S2Z38T
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Blass, JoEllen, "Effects of an Essentialism Manipulation on the Neural Processing of Racial Minorities" (2017). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1516639580.
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/S2Z38T
