Essentialism and the Perception of Mixed-Race Individuals: Implications for the Sociopolitical Assimilation of Ethnic Minorities |
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting
Trinity College
Dublin, Ireland
2009-07-14
Arnold Ho
Harvard University
James Sidanius, Professor of Psychology and of African and African American Studies
Harvard University
Previous work examining hypodescent, the process whereby persons of mixed-race descent are assigned to their socially subordinate racial status, showed that hypodescent may be applied to both Asian-White and Black-White targets (Ho & Sidanius, 2008). However, no research has uncovered attitudinal covariates of hypodescent. Thus, while hypodescent has been shown to occur, little is known about its antecedents. Across two survey studies, we show that essentialism, or the tendency to see racial group boundaries and differences as being biological rather than socially constructed, can lead to hypodescent. Establishing essentialism as a precursor to hypodescent further establishes the role of essentialist thinking in intergroup relations, a topic of recent interest in social and political psychology (Prentice & Miller, 2007). The relationship between essentialism and classical (“old fashioned”) racism, as well as the implications of hypodescent for the sociopolitical assimilation of African- and Asian-Americans, are discussed.
Read the entire paper here.
Tags: hypodescent