<p> The traditional focus in social psychological research on bias has been concentrated on persons belonging to a sole disadvantaged social category: Research on race has primarily focused on Black and other racial minority men, while research on gender has historically centered on White women. Consequently, instances of <i>intersectionality</i>, the junction of two or more subordinate identities, are understudied. The primary objective of the present work is to identify how intersectionality interacts with contextual factors to influence social perceptions and interactions. I concentrate on the intersection of race and gender in social perception and interactions with a specific focus on the social implications of Black women's double-minority status. Across four experiments, I provide empirical evidence that suggests that: Black women are perceived to be non-prototypical members of both their race and gender ingroups, social prototypicality is a malleable characteristic that may be contextually manipulated, Black women evade traditionally-feminine prescriptive stereotypes, Black women evade negative attention in threatening contexts, and Black women are afforded a relative advantage (vs. singly non-prototypical targets) in positive social contexts. The implications for future intersectionality research are discussed.</p>
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3578462 |
Date | 26 February 2014 |
Creators | Thomas, Erin Lorraine |
Publisher | Yale University |
Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | thesis |
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