title: Contextual Variation in Automatic Evaluative Bias to Racially-Ambiguous Faces.
abstract: Three studies examined the implicit evaluative associations activated by racially-ambiguous Black-White faces. In the context of both Black and White faces, Study 1 revealed a graded pattern of bias against racially-ambiguous faces that was weaker than the bias to Black faces but stronger than that to White faces. Study 2 showed that significant bias was present when racially-ambiguous faces appeared in the context of only White faces, but not in the context of only Black faces. Study 3 demonstrated that context produces perceptual contrast effects on racial-prototypicality judgments. Racially-ambiguous faces were perceived as more prototypically Black in a White-only than mixed-race context, and less prototypically Black in a Black-only context. Conversely, they were seen as more prototypically White in a Black-only than mixed context, and less prototypically White in a White-only context. The studies suggest that both race-related featural properties within a face (i.e., racial ambiguity) and external contextual factors affect automatic evaluative associations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Boulder.
authors.forename: Tiffany A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Eve C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Willadsen-Jensen
authors.forename: Jesse T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Kaye
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Park