Date of Award
5-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department/Program
Psychology
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
John Paul Wilson
Committee Member
Michael Bixter
Committee Member
Alan Pehrson
Abstract
Racial bias in threat perception has long been a phenomenon of concern within the social sciences, and more recently, researchers have begun to focus on the role that biased judgment of physical size may impact such perceptions. In the wake of highly publicized police killings of unarmed Black civilians, there have been increased calls for creating systemic and cultural reform to address the disproportionate violence inflicted upon the Black population. Simultaneously, political conservatives have mounted increasing resistance to discussions of racial equality and have recently begun enacting laws that would limit or prohibit teaching and workplace discussions on the topic. This study sought to test how effectively racial bias in size perception could be reduced via three different kinds of messages: data-based, narrative-based, and a combination of the two. Further, it also sought to determine if political ideology could moderate the strength of these messages. It was found that compared to control, all three message types were successful in reducing size bias, but not threat bias. The data and combined messages were significantly more effective at reducing size bias than the narrative message, but the effect size of the difference was quite small. Although political ideology did not moderate the effects of any of the messages, it was found that more conservative participants were more likely to exhibit bias in estimates of capability of causing harm regardless of the message type. These findings are largely in line with those in the broader body of research and offer insights into how racial bias in size and threat perception may be mitigated via informational interventions.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Brosseau, Alexandra, "Testing the Effectiveness of Data- and Narrative-Based Messages in Mitigating Racial Bias in Size and Threat Judgments" (2022). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 1009.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1009