1. Introduction
• Experiences with racial discrimination have a profound effect
on numerous psychological health outcomes, including
negative emotions (Williams & Mohammed, 2009)
• Stress and coping models have been developed to explain how
racism, emotions, and well-being are linked:
• Biopsychosocial model (Clark et al., 1999)
• Multidimensional Conceptualization of Racism-Related
Stress (Harrell, 2000)
• Racial Identity—the significance and meaning of race (Sellers
et al., 1998) --has been identified as a protective factor in the
study of discrimination and well-being
• Current study aimed to investigate how African American
college students’ racial identity might be temporarily primed,
and in turn, how racial identity would impact emotional
responses to a discriminatory event
Limitations and Methodological Alternatives
• Majority of studies rely on retrospective recall--lifetime or
past year measures of discrimination and symptoms--which
suffers from several limitations, and does not allow for
measuring immediate emotional responses
• As such, assessing specific discriminatory events
important to understanding mechanisms.
• One innovative way to examine the role of racial identity (RI)
in the context of a specific discriminatory event is to
cognitively prime the construct
• Previous research suggests that priming a social identity such
as RI, can affect behavior and attitudes (e.g., Bargh et al.,
1996).
• Complex constructs such as RI may require more
sophisticated priming techniques, such as Iconic Priming,
which uses dynamic images (Hong et al., 2000)
Research Questions
• What is the feasibility of priming RI using icons? (Study 1)
• How does priming particular racial ideologies impact
immediate emotional responses? (Study 2)
• How does the subtlety of the event interact with ideology
priming? (Study 2)
• How does one’s self-reported ideology interact with primed RI
to impact emotional response? (Study 2)
Discussion
• Taken together, the studies extend the extant literature
related to understanding emotional responses to
discrimination
• Study 1 extends Hong’s methodology to the study of racial
identity
• Study 2 suggests that aspects of racial ideology, namely
humanist ideology, can impact emotional responses to
blatant, vicarious racism.
• Assimilationist ideology appeared emotionally
protective
• Neutral priming condition related to greatest increases
in negative emotions
Observations and Caveats
• Lack of time period interactions limits interpretation of
findings
• Only blatant condition implicated in findings
• No blatant vs. subtle differences for active conditions
• Contextual moderators
• Gender emerged
• SES (i.e. maternal education) did not emerge
Implications
• Methodological
• Study extends Hong et al. (2000) and Kawakami and
colleagues’ (2009) paradigms, providing a novel
approach to study vicarious discrimination
• Clinicians should:
• Inquire as to the type of discrimination (e.g., subtle,
vicarious)
• Be aware of significance and meaning of race in lives of
African American clients
Limitations and Future Directions
• Studies may have been underpowered
• Study 1 findings do not provide “burden of evidence” for
iconic priming paradigm
• Racial identity subscales had only modest reliabilities
• Future work could capture observational and physiological
data
Conclusions
• Findings add to the growing literature investigating
emotional responses to racial discrimination.
• Work makes attempt to study the protective role of racial
identity in the context of specific events
• The studies add commentary to society’s current discourse
related to racism
Shawn C.T. Jones & Enrique W. Neblett
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the African American Youth Wellness
Lab (AAYWL), RAs, confederates, consultants, APAGS, and the
APA Science Student Council
Further information
Please contact jonessc@email.unc.edu for more information
about upcoming projects.
“I hate it when they do that”: Examining the Role of Racial Identity Priming on
African Americans’ Emotional Responses to Racism
STUDY 1
Method
Participants
• 50 self-identified African American college students (80% female)
• Age: 18-29, Mean 20.18 (SD=2.34)
• Family SES: Median reported SES was ‘Middle Class’
Procedure
• Participants completed a brief sociodemographic questionnaire and three
purportedly unrelated tasks
• Iconic Priming Paradigm
• Sudoku (Filler Task)
• Racial Ideology Questionnaire
Iconic Priming Images (Figure 1)
• 20 color and black/white images selected following pilot testing
• Four conditions (participants randomly assigned to conditions)
• Assimilationist, Humanist, Nationalist, Neutral
• 5 images per condition
• Images displayed for 30s each, and accompanied by prompts (e.g., “what does
this picture represent”
Measures
• Post Priming Racial Ideology Questionnaire
• 12 ideology items from Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity
(Sellers et al., 1997)
• Ideology Scales
• Assimilationist: α = .55, Inter-Item Correlation = .36
• Humanist: α = .64, Inter-Item Correlation = .47
• Nationalist: α = .53, Inter-Item Correlation = .36
Selected References
Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct
and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 230-244.
Clark, R., Anderson, N. B., Clark, V. R., & Williams, D. R. (1999). Racism as a stressor for African Americans: A
biopsychosocial model. American Psychologist, 54(10), 805-816.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and
Social Behavior, 24(4), 385-396.
Harrell, S. P. (2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: Implications for the well-
being of people of color. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70, 42-58.
Hong, Y., Morris, M. W., Chiu, C., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2000). Multicultural minds: A dynamic constructivist
approach to culture and cognition. American Psychologist, 55(7), 709-720.
Kawakami, K., Dunn, E., Karmali, F., & Dovidio, J. F. (2009). Misreading affective and behavioral responses to
racism. Science, 323(5911), 276-278.
McNair, D. M., Lorr, M., & Droppleman, L. F. (1971). Manual for the Profile of Mood States. San Diego,
California: Educational and Industrial Testing Service..
Martin, P. P., Wout, D. A., Nguyen, H. X., Gonzalez, R. D., & Sellers, R. M. (2010). Investigating the
psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity in two samples: The
development of the MIBI-S. Unpublished manuscript.
Sellers, R. M., Rowley, S. A. J., Chavous, T. M., Shelton, J. N., & Smith, M. A. (1997). Multidimensional
inventory of black identity: A preliminary investigation of reliability and construct validity. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 73(4), 805-815.
Shacham, S. (1983). A shortened version of the profile of mood states. Journal of Personality Assessment, 47,
305-306.
Spielberger, C. D. (1979). Preliminary manual for the state-trait personality inventory (STPI). Preliminary
Manual for the State-Trait Personality Inventory (STPI).
STUDY 2: Method
Participants
• 42 African American undergraduates (33 females, 9 males)
• Age: 18-23, Mean 19.71 (SD=1.22)
• Family SES: Median reported SES was again ‘Middle Class’
Procedure
• Two-session study:
• Session1: Online Questionnaire with demographics and variables of interest
• Session 2: “Visual Immersion” Tasks & Racist Manipulation: Individuals engaged
in the priming task and then witnessed exchange between a Black and White male
confederate
• Black confederate bumps White confederate
• White confederate engages in a staged phone call (random assignment)
• Neutral (No mention of race)
• Subtle (“Hate it when they do that”)
• Blatant (“Clumsy N-word”)
STUDY 1
Results
• Omnibus findings not significant; however, post-hoc
analysis revealed significant and trend-level
differences by condition (Table 1).
Table 1. Endorsement of Racial Ideology beliefs by priming
condition
STUDY 2: Results
• Utilized mixed-effect models, assessing emotional reactivity using change scores (compared to baseline)
• Investigated main effect of prime, prime X discrimination interactions, and other higher order interactions
• Found both main effects and interactions for both depression (Figure 2) and Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) (Figure 3)
• Gender also emerged as a significant moderator of these relationships for both moods.
Figure 1
Sample Racial Ideology Icons for Study 1
Nationalist
Assimilationist
Humanist
Figure 2: Depressed Mood reactivity presented separately by racial
ideology prime and type of discrimination experience
Figure 3: Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) reactivity presented separately
by racial ideology prime and type of discrimination experience
Measures
• Sociodemographic Questionnaire
• Covariates: Racism-Related Stress, General Stress,
Trait Mood
• Racial Identity
• MIBI-Short Form (Martin et al., 2010)
• Mood
• Transient – POMS-SF (Shacham, 1983)
• Depression, Anger, Tension, Confusion, Fatigue,
Vigor, Total Mood Disturbance
Note: Means with different alpha subscripts were significantly different at the 0.05 level;
Means with different numerical subscripts showed trend level differences.
Nationalist
(n=7)
Assimilationist
(n=11)
Humanist
(n=13)
Neutral
(n=11)
Endorsement of
Humanist
Ideology
4.86 4.00i
5.15ii
5.09
SD 1.89 1.67 1.49 1.14
Endorsement of
Assimilationist
Ideology
4.43 4.32 5.08 4.45
SD 2.11 1.68 1.17 1.35
Endorsement of
Nationalist
Ideology
2.43a
2.00 1.58b
2.00
SD 1.10 0.74 0.61 1.05
Participants primed
with humanist ideology
had greater increases in
depressed mood in
blatant condition
(compared to neutral).
Participants in neutral
priming condition had
greater depressed mood
reactivity in blatant
condition compared to
either subtle or neutral
conditions.
Across racism conditions,
participants primed with
assimilationist icons had
greatest decreases in
TMD. Participants in
neutral priming category
had higher TMD
reactivity in blatant
condition (compared to
other two conditions).
Those participants also
had the highest TMD
reactivity within the
blatant condition
Consent
POMS-SF
(Baseline)
Visual
Immersion #1
(Priming)
POMS
Discrimination
Manipulation
POMS
Visual
Immersion #2
(Distracter)
POMS
Debriefing
Procedural Flowchart
STUDY 2: Method