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Objective: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Black and Asian, compared to White, people experienced unique social identity threats (SITs) while wearing face masks (Kahn & Money, 2022). This study examines specific racial stereotypes (criminality, foreignness, illness) and mask types (bandanas, surgical masks, maskless) that underlie SIT while wearing masks and their effect on safety., Method: Black, Asian, and White participants ( N = 591) completed a cross-sectional survey about SIT experiences wearing different face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic., Results: Results demonstrated that criminality, foreignness, and illness stereotypes each mediated the effects of race on SITs while masked. Criminality stereotypes were generally the strongest. Black individuals were most concerned with being stereotyped as criminals when wearing masks, particularly bandanas. Asian individuals feared being stereotyped as foreign while masked,mostly with surgical masks, compared to Black and White individuals. Black and Asian, compared to White, people reported fears of being perceived as ill with COVID-19 when wearing masks. In a parallel mediation, criminal stereotypes and SIT while masked mediated the relationship between race and anticipated interactions with police., Conclusion: In the United States, Black and Asian individuals weigh concerns for their health along with safety in the face of race-based stereotypes that wearing masks prime. Racial minorities' safety during viral pandemics necessitates remediating these societal biases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Three studies examine how women's benevolent sexism (BS) shapes support for other women's agentic responses to gender-based threat. In Study 1, women read vignettes about a woman who agentically responded (vs. no response) to gender-based threat (e.g., sexism). As hypothesized, BS predicted more positive attitudes towards the woman who chose not to challenge sexism and more negative attitudes towards the woman who did. Studies 2 and 3 focused on whether these effects are driven by the behaviour displayed by the target (response or not) or by the ideology it seeks to uphold (traditional or non-traditional). There may be circumstances under which BS is associated with positive attitudes towards women's agentic (i.e., non-gender role conforming) behaviour, for instance, when it is used to support traditional gender roles. Studies 2 and 3 showed that when women's agentic behaviour is used to uphold traditional gender roles (vs. challenge them), BS is positively associated with support for such behaviour. These findings underscore the importance of ideology underlying women's agentic behaviour: BS can support women's agentic responses that violate prescribed gender roles, so long as they reinforce the status quo., (© 2021 The British Psychological Society.)

Although studies often find racial disparities in policing outcomes, less is known about how suspect race biases police interactions as they unfold. This study examines what is differentially occurring during police-suspect interactions for White, Black, and Latino suspects across time. It is hypothesized that racial bias may be more evident earlier in interactions, when less information about the situation is available. One hundred thirty-nine (62 White, 42 Black, and 35 Latino) use-of-force case files and associated written narratives from a medium to large size urban police department in the United States were analyzed. Trained coders broke down the interaction narratives into discrete "sequences," or dyadic action-reaction steps involving a suspect action (level of resistance) and an officer response (level of force). A linear mixed-effects model was run on amount of police use of force by suspect race and time, with suspect resistance and suspect actions toward third-party/self as controls. Results demonstrated that Black and Latino suspects receive more force in the beginning stages of the interaction, whereas Whites escalated in level of force faster after initial levels. By breaking down police-suspect interactions into discrete sequences, the current study reveals a better understanding of when bias originates in police use of force and informs how to focus policing interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

This study examines the role of perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality and race-based social identity threat on racial minorities' trust and cooperation with police. We hypothesize that in police interactions, racial minorities' phenotypic racial stereotypicality may increase race-based social identity threat, which will lead to distrust and decreased participation with police. Racial minorities (Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and multi-racials) and Whites from a representative random sample of city residents were surveyed about policing attitudes. A serial multiple mediation model confirmed that racial minorities' self-rated phenotypic racial stereotypicality indirectly affected future cooperation through social identity threat and trust. Due to the lack of negative group stereotypes in policing, the model did not hold for Whites. This study provides evidence that phenotypic stereotypicality influences racial minorities' psychological experiences interacting with police.

This paper examines how perceived pervasiveness of prejudice differentially affects high and low status group members' support for a low status group member who confronts. In Experiment 1 (N = 228), men and women read a text describing sexism as rare or as pervasive and subsequently indicated their support for a woman who confronted or did not confront a sexist remark. Experiment 2 (N = 324) specified the underlying process using a self-affirmation manipulation. Results show that men were more supportive of confrontation when sexism was perceived to be rare than when it was pervasive. By contrast, women tended to prefer confrontation when sexism was pervasive relative to when it was rare. Personal self-affirmation decreased men's and increased women's support for confrontation when prejudice was rare, suggesting that men's and women's support for confrontation when prejudice is rare is driven by personal impression management considerations. Implications for understanding how members of low and high status groups respond to prejudice are discussed., (© 2015 The British Psychological Society.)

When anticipating the imposition of the death penalty, jurors may be less inclined to convict defendants. On the other hand, minority defendants have been shown to be treated more punitively, particularly in capital cases. Given that the influence of anticipated sentence severity on verdicts may vary as a function of defendant race, the goal of this study was to test the independent and interactive effects of these factors. We conducted a survey-embedded experiment with a nationally representative sample to examine the effect on verdicts of sentence severity as a function of defendant race, presenting respondents with a triple murder trial summary that manipulated the maximum penalty (death vs. life without parole) and the race of the defendant. Respondents who were told life-without-parole was the maximum sentence were not significantly more likely to convict Black (67.7%) than White (66.7%) defendants. However, when death was the maximum sentence, respondents presented with Black defendants were significantly more likely to convict (80.0%) than were those with White defendants (55.1%). The results indicate that the death penalty may be a cause of racial disparities in criminal justice, and implicate threats to civil rights and to effective criminal justice., ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)