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The confrontation of prejudicial acts and comments promotes multiple benefits, most notably the prevention of future prejudicial remarks and the reduction of stereotype use. Research, however, consistently shows low rates of confronting prejudice, particularly regarding sexism. Here, we examine whether personal sense of power, known to increase action and activate the behavioral approach system, increases the likelihood of confronting a sexist remark. In Study 1, we demonstrate that for both women and men, self-reported power is associated with a higher frequency of confronting sexism. In Study 2, we manipulate women's sense of power (i.e., high power, low power, or control) and subsequently present an opportunity to confront a sexist remark. Results show that women primed to feel powerful were more likely to confront the sexist remark and expressed greater disagreement with the comment, compared to women primed to feel powerless. Implications for the confronting literature and behavior are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Participants: In a large, diverse sample of college students (N = 2,230), this online study investigated racial/ethnic differences on type of discriminatory event experienced and perceived stress, and whether discrimination-related stress was associated with mental health symptoms. Methods: Prevalence of lifetime/past year discriminatory events was assessed and frequency of discrimination-related stress was compared across racial/ethnic groups. Correlations between discrimination-related stress and mental health symptoms were also examined. Results: All racial/ethnic groups reported experiencing all types of discriminatory events, though prevalence was lowest for White students. Racial/ethnic minority (i.e., Asian, Black, Latinx) students reported greater discrimination-related perceived stress compared to White, non-Hispanics. Across all racial/ethnic groups, discrimination-related stress was positively associated with negative mental health outcomes (e.g., anxiety/depressive symptoms). Conclusions: These results highlight the need to continue efforts to reduce discriminatory experiences of racial/ethnic minority students and to incorporate antiracism interventions in universities to mitigate the pervasive negative experiences of minority students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US judicial system is rife with racial discrimination against Black individuals at every stage. The current study aimed to examine perceptions of individuals accused of crimes and perceptions of sentencing decisions. Furthermore, we aimed to examine whether implicit and explicit racial bias would affect these perceptions. White university students (n = 157) and noncollege adults (n = 224) viewed fictitious electronic case records for Black and White target individuals convicted of a nonviolent drug crime or a violent assault crime. They rated the targets on positive and negative traits and completed measures of explicit and implicit racial bias. Findings indicated that university student participants rated the White targets more negatively and less positively than the Black targets across both crimes. The nonuniversity sample rated the Black targets more negatively than the White targets for the violent crime. On ratings of deservingness of incarceration and fairness of the sanction, participants had similar perceptions for Black and White targets. Furthermore, participants in our studies who reported greater explicit bias also evaluated the Black target less positively, more negatively, as more violent, and as more deserving of incarceration. More negative implicit bias was significantly associated with less positive evaluations of the Black target and greater endorsement that the target deserved incarceration. These findings have implications for criminal justice and judicial reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College students from underrepresented racial groups often experience racial prejudice and discrimination from their White peers at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). White university students may be misinformed about race and unaware of their privilege. In this study, we investigated the effects of online training that aimed to increase participants' cultural competence through multicultural knowledge, awareness of their own privilege, and skills. White college students at a PWI completed a 4‐week training program adapted from a 1‐day in‐person workshop. The training provided 1‐h weekly online sessions in which White participants (n = 72) were provided resources aimed to develop cultural competence. It utilized student‐acted role plays, reflection questions, articles, and videos to create an interactive experience for students. Results demonstrated that participants showed significant increases in cultural competence and acknowledgment of their White privilege directly following the fourth training session. Further, they exhibited decreases in racial colorblindness. This study suggests that a brief, online training may increase cultural competence in undergraduates which can potentially improve the climates of university campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confrontation is an important mechanism to reduce racial prejudice. Yet, little research has examined White adults' intended confrontation within the context of discriminatory policies that pose barriers to Black Americans seeking employment. Moreover, less research has investigated reactions to zero‐sum and negative‐sum anti‐Black institutional discrimination. The present study investigated the effects of an antiracism educational exercise on White adults' intended confrontation of zero‐sum and negative‐sum institutional discrimination. Participants aged 20–85 years (n = 195; Mage = 54.16) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) antiracism education with writing reflection, (2) antiracism education alone, or (3) a control condition. Participants then reported how they would respond in situations that described zero‐sum (i.e., new hire recruitment exclusively from predominantly White institutions) and negative‐sum anti‐Black institutional discrimination (i.e., hairstyle discrimination). Participants in the antiracism education alone condition intended to confront more assertively in both scenarios compared to participants in the control condition. Across conditions, participants were more likely to intend to confront, and intended to confront more assertively, in the zero‐sum discrimination scenario than the negative‐sum discrimination scenario. We conclude that a brief antiracism education exercise may hold promise for increasing White adults' assertive confrontation of institutional discrimination, but the effects may be contingent on whether a reflective writing task is included and the characteristics of the discriminatory policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typically developing young adults perceive their peers with autism more negatively than those without autism, but less so when they have experience with individuals with autism. Study 1 examined whether typically developing university students' (n = 70) judgments of their peers would differ as a function of interpersonal contact and being labeled as autistic. Perceptions of peers with autism were consistent with stereotypes about autism and were associated with contact. In Study 2, typically developing university students (n = 130) imagined interacting with a student with manipulations of perseverative behavior and the label of autism. Attitudes towards individuals with autism were more positive following an imagined contact scenario with a peer demonstrating perseverative behavior with a label of autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study sought to characterize implicit bias toward children with autism and examine whether viewing educational materials about autism would change attitudes toward children with autism. A website developed by Sesame Street containing information about autism and resources for families was distributed to parents of children with autism (n = 473) and parents of children without autism (n = 707). Pre- and post-test measures of implicit bias toward children with autism; explicit attitudes and knowledge about autism; and parenting confidence, strain, and stigma were completed before and after the website was presented. Results indicated that parents of children with autism showed less implicit bias compared with those of non-autistic children during the pre-test, but the groups did not differ at the post-test. Parents without autistic children and those with more negative explicit attitudes showed a greater reduction in implicit bias from the pre- to the post-test. In addition, for parents of children with autism, a more positive change in explicit attitudes and increased knowledge from the pre- to the post-test was associated with more empowerment at the post-test. Together, our findings suggest that the online educational resources can reduce implicit bias against children with autism and help mitigate some of the psychological issues associated with parenting children with autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined neurotypical university students' (n = 116) perceptions of and behavior toward student confederates they believed to have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or not. Confederates were labeled by membership in an ASD student organization, behavior stereotypical of ASD, both, or neither. Perceptions of the confederate, verbal and non-verbal behavior toward the confederate, and explicit and implicit attitudes toward individuals with autism were measured. Confederates depicting ASD behaviors were perceived more negatively than confederates who depicted neurotypical behaviors. Participants smiled less at confederates who depicted ASD behaviors than those who did not. Explicit attitudes toward autism were not associated with verbal or non-verbal behavior while implicit attitudes predicted some non-verbal behavior but only in specific combinations of labels and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether attentional bias toward homosexual couples differs as a function of the manipulation of perceived entitativity, the degree to which group members are perceived to share common values and pursue common goals. Across two experiments, heterosexual college students were randomly assigned to read statements that suggested that homosexual and heterosexual couples were either high or low in entitativity. Following this task, 199 participants completed a dot probe task in Experiment 1 and electroencephalogram (EEG) activity was recorded for 74 participants in Experiment 2 to measure the implicit attentional processing that resulted from viewing pictures of gay, lesbian, and straight couples. Results indicated that participants exposed to low entitativity statements directed less behavioral and neural attention toward gay relative to straight couples compared to those exposed to high entitativity statements. Given the apparent malleability of attentional biases, future research should strive to better understand the factors involved in reducing attentional bias, and by extension, discriminatory behaviors toward minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current work examined the unique contribution that autistic traits and social anxiety have on tasks examining attention and emotion processing. In Study 1, 119 typically-developing college students completed a flanker task assessing the control of attention to target faces and away from distracting faces during emotion identification. In Study 2, 208 typically-developing college students performed a visual search task which required identification of whether a series of 8 or 16 emotional faces depicted the same or different emotions. Participants with more self-reported autistic traits performed more slowly on the flanker task in Study 1 than those with fewer autistic traits when stimuli depicted complex emotions. In Study 2, participants higher in social anxiety performed less accurately on trials showing all complex faces; participants with autistic traits showed no differences. These studies suggest that traits related to autism and to social anxiety differentially impact social cognitive processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the current study was to examine whether differential neural attentional capture and evaluative responses for out-group homosexual relative to in-group heterosexual targets occur during social categorization. To this end, 36 heterosexual participants were presented with pictures of heterosexual and homosexual couples in a picture-viewing task that was designed to assess implicit levels of discomfort toward homosexuality and explicit evaluations of pleasantness toward the images. Neural activity in the form of electroencephalogram was recorded during the presentation of the pictures, and event-related potentials resulting from these stimuli were examined. Participants also completed questionnaires that assessed the degree to which they socialized with gays and lesbians. Results demonstrated that relative to straight couples, larger P2 amplitude was observed in response to gay but not to lesbian couples. However, both gay and lesbian couples yielded a larger late positive potential than straight couples. Moreover, the degree to which participants differentially directed early neural attention to out-group lesbian versus in-group straight couples was related to their familiarity with homosexual individuals. This work, which provides an initial understanding of the neural underpinnings of attention toward homosexual couples, suggests that differences in the processing of sexual orientation can occur as early as 200 ms and may be moderated by familiarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has identified an important role for task switching, a cognitive control process often associated with executive functioning, in the Implicit Association Test (IAT). However, switching does not fully account for IAT effects, particularly when performance is scored using more recent d-score formulations. The current study sought to characterize multiple control processes involved in IAT performance through the use of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants performed a race-evaluative IAT while ERPs were recorded. Behaviorally, participants experienced superadditive reaction time costs of incongruency and task switching, consistent with previous studies. The ERP showed a marked medial frontal negativity (MFN) 250–450 ms post-stimulus at midline fronto-central locations that were more negative for incongruent than congruent trials but more positive for switch than for no-switch trials, suggesting separable control processes are engaged by these two factors. Greater behavioral IAT bias was associated with both greater switch-related and congruency-related ERP activity. Findings are discussed in terms of the Dual Mechanisms of Control model of reactive and proactive cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Some research has demonstrated that White perceivers direct more initial attention to Black relative to White target faces, while other work has failed to show this relationship. Several variables have been identified that moderate early attention to racial outgroup versus racial ingroup faces. In the current paper, two studies sought to extend this work by testing whether close contact with racial outgroup members moderates the amount of initial attention directed towards racial outgroup members relative to ingroup members using a dot-probe task. In Study 1, Whites’ attentional allocation to Black versus White faces was moderated by the amount of close and meaningful contact with Blacks. Study 2 extended these findings by demonstrating that Whites’ attentional allocation to Asian relative to White faces was moderated by close contact with Asians. These findings identify close outgroup contact as an additional moderating variable in the attentional capture of racial outgroup versus ingroup faces, for groups both associated and not associated with threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Previous work has indicated that implicit attentional biases to alcohol-related cues are indicative of susceptibility to alcohol dependence and escape drinking, or drinking to avoid dysphoric mood or emotions. Objective: The goal of the current study was to examine whether alcohol dependence and escape drinking were associated with early neural attentional biases to alcohol cues. Methods: Electroencephalography data were recorded from 54 college students who reported that they regularly drank alcohol, while they viewed alcohol and control pictures that contained human content (active) or no human content (inactive). Results: Those who were alcohol dependent showed more neural attentional bias to the active alcohol-related stimuli than to the matched control stimuli early in processing, as indicated by N1 amplitude. Escape drinkers showed greater neural attention to the active alcohol cues than non-escape drinkers, as measured by larger N2 amplitudes. Conclusions: While alcohol dependence is associated with enhanced automatic attentional biases early in processing, escape drinking is associated with more controlled attentional biases to active alcohol cues during a relatively later stage in processing. These findings reveal important information about the time-course of attentional processing in problem drinkers and have important implications for addiction models and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, disgust was induced using a carefully controlled odor manipulation to observe its effect on participants' implicit and explicit responses to homosexuals. Participants were presented with a vial containing an odor that was described as 'body odor' (n = 47) that induced a high level of disgust, or 'parmesan cheese' (n = 43) that induced a moderate level of disgust, or an odor-free vial (n = 53). Subsequently, participants viewed images of homosexual and heterosexual couples, and their viewing times and ratings of the images' pleasantness were recorded. Additionally, they completed a 'feelings thermometer' task, the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men scale that assessed feelings toward homosexuals, and the Three-Domain Disgust Scale to measure sensitivity along three dimensions of disgust (pathogen, moral, and sexual). Results indicated that those in the body odor condition viewed images of gay (but not lesbian) couples for less time relative to images of heterosexual couples compared with participants in the other two conditions. With respect to explicit ratings, participants in the body odor condition reported colder feelings for gay relative to heterosexual men on the feelings thermometer compared with those in the no-odor control condition. For pleasantness ratings, the odor manipulation served as a moderator, such that for those in the body odor condition only, higher sensitivity to sexual disgust predicted lower ratings for images of lesbian couples relative to straight couples. Thus, although induction of disgust biases implicit and explicit responses to gay couples, the degree to which this occurs for explicit ratings of lesbian couples depends on levels of sexual disgust. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the current study was to determine whether activation of the mirror neuron system, as measured by mu rhythm desynchronization, varied as a function of image content in smokers compared with nonsmokers. EEG activity was recorded while participants passively viewed images depicting smoking-related and nonsmoking-related stimuli. In half of the images, cues were depicted alone (inactive), while for the remaining images, cues were depicted with humans interacting with them (active). For the nonsmoking stimuli, smokers and nonsmokers showed greater mu suppression to the active cues compared to the inactive cues. However, for the smoking-related stimuli, smokers showed greater perception-action coupling for the active cues as reflected in their enhanced mu suppression, compared to nonsmokers. The results of the current study support the involvement of the perceptual-motor system in the activation of motivated drug use behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current studies explore situational and individual factors affecting non-target perceivers' reactions and behavior following a racist comment, focusing on verbal confronting behavior. Two studies were conducted in which participants reported about recent situations in which they witnessed a racist comment that was not directed specifically at their own racial group. Results indicated that only one third of participants directly confronted the commenter. Strength of verbal confrontation was predicted by affective reactions and judgments of the offensiveness of the prejudicial comment. Analyses also revealed that strength of confrontation for females was predicted by the experience of negative emotions, but that males confronted more with stronger ratings of the offensiveness of the racist remarks. Implications for theory and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has demonstrated that early attentional components of the event-related potential (ERP) reflect differential attention to race during person perception. There is also evidence that inconsistency between stereotypic information following impression formation leads to greater neural processing in later ERP components. However, research has not examined how expectancy violations following impression formation affect the early attentional processing of race. The current study examined this issue by leading White participants to form impressions of targets based on positive or negative behaviors associated with stereotypes about Blacks or Whites, with the purpose of creating an expectation of Black or White targets. Following each impression formation trial, a target face whose race either violated or confirmed this expectancy was displayed. Participants indicated whether this target could have performed the previous behavior. Results demonstrated that reaction times and early attentional components of the ERP varied as a function of the match between expectancy and the race of target faces, with stereotypic expectancy violating trials yielding longer reaction times and greater N1 and N2 amplitudes than expectancy-confirming trials. Implications for impression formation and person perception are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Research has established that targets who express disagreement with prejudicial comments directed toward their social group may be viewed negatively by those they confront or by members of social outgroups. Less research has examined how non-target individuals who confront prejudicial remarks are perceived. The current studies were designed to examine how non-targets who confronted racist (Study 1) and heterosexist (Study 2) comments would be perceived as a function of the level of offensiveness of the comment and the confrontation style used. The studies also examined whether confronting behavior would affect perceptions of the individual who made the prejudicial comment. Undergraduate participants read vignettes depicting a situation with a high or low offensive prejudicial comment in which a non-target individual confronted assertively, unassertively, or not at all. Participants provided judgments of both individuals. Results indicated that non-targets who confronted highly prejudicial comments either assertively or unassertively were liked and respected more than those who failed to confront. Additionally, commenters who were assertively confronted were respected less than commenters who were not. These findings suggest that non-targets may be especially effective in confronting prejudicial comments, as they do not suffer the same negative consequences as targets who confront. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three largely independent lines of research have investigated experimental manipulations that influence the amplitude of the N2 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP), one linking heightened N2 amplitude to response conflict, another showing that N2 is sensitive to stimulus infrequency, and the third showing larger N2 amplitude during categorization of racial ingroup relative to racial outgroup targets. The purpose of this research was to investigate potential interactions between these three features on the amplitude of the N2. ERPs were recorded while participants completed a modified flanker task using pictures of ingroup and outgroup faces. Results showed a 3-way interaction, indicating that the N2 was largest for ingroup targets on high-conflict trials but only when such trials were relatively infrequent. Implications of these findings for theories of both conflict monitoring and person perception are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates that racial categorization is slowed by the presence of category-inconsistent information. The current experiments tested response conflict, or the tendency for opposing response tendencies to compete for activation, as a mechanism for this effect. In two experiments, participants more quickly categorized faces flanked by racial stereotype-congruent words than faces flanked by stereotype-incongruent words, particularly when stereotype-congruent words were more probable. Eventrelated potential (ERP) data indicated that this behavioral effect was due to response conflict. The lateralized readiness potential (LRP) showed that, relative to stereotype-congruent flankers, stereotype-incongruent flankers initially elicited activation of the incorrect categorization response, which slowed activation and execution of the correct categorization response. Stereotype-incongruent flankers also enhanced the amplitude of the N2 (conflict monitoring) component. Potential differences in stimulus evaluation time, assessed with the latency of the P3 component of the ERP, were not responsible for observed response time differences. Findings are discussed in terms the neural locus of behavioral effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent electrophysiological research indicates that perceivers differentiate others on the basis of race extremely quickly. However, most categorization studies have been limited to White participants, neglecting potential differences in processing between racial groups. Moreover, the extent to which race interferes with categorization along other dimensions when race is made irrelevant to a perceiver's task is not known. A gender categorization task was used to test the extent to which race information would implicitly interfere with explicit gender categorization. As predicted, behavioral and electrocortical data indicated that participants attended to both the task-relevant gender dimension and the task-irrelevant race dimension. Additionally, processing of target race differed between Black and White participants. Ingroup attention biases in the N200 component of the event-related brain potential facilitated target categorization, suggesting a potential functional role for early differentiation of ingroup and outgroup targets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Errors in timed choice tasks typically produce an error-related negativity (ERN) in the event-related potential (ERP). The error specificity of the ERN has been challenged by studies showing a correct response negativity (CRN). Forty-five participants engaged in a flanker task in which both compatibility between flankers and target and the probability of compatible flankers were manipulated. Correct responses elicited a CRN, the amplitude of which increased with the degree of mismatch between the presence of conflict and conflict probability, even on low-conflict (compatible) trials. The fronto-central N2 component was larger on high-conflict (incompatible) correct response trials. However, in contrast to some recent accounts, this N2 was largest for highly probable stimuli. These findings suggest revision to models of the effects of conflict on response-related negativity to account for strategic adjustments made in preparation for the response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]