Racial Perception & Stigma

I am conducting experiments to investigate how different racial signals—like skin tone, asserted racial identity, and racialized names—produce micro-level prejudice. My first two experiments analyze how observers judge racial identity assertions and physical appearance. I found that identity assertions influenced how observers categorized people but not how observers evaluated them. My findings suggest that racial identity assertions by themselves do not predict racial stigma at the micro-level. I argue that other aspects of race, like physical appearance, may be more consequential in inducing stigma and creating racial disadvantages. Read the full paper here. Future work will examine different combinations of racial signals and how these produce prejudice. ​​