Doctoral Dissertation Research: How Do Stereotypes Affect Emotion Norms and Attributions?

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation examines whether people expect and attribute different emotions to Black women, Black men, White women, and White men even when they display similar emotions in response to the same situation. Prior research has documented that certain groups of people have systematically different emotional experiences, but it is unclear why this is the case. In this dissertation, the situation leading up to an emotion is held constant using experimental methods to better examine how people may respond differently to the same situation, and how other people may interpret the same emotional reaction differently depending on the race and gender of the person displaying the emotion. In doing so, we can better understand the role cultural stereotypes in shaping emotional expectations that people have for themselves and others as well as how people react to these emotion norms. In three experiments and one survey with an oversample of Black respondents, we test a theoretical model of how people's interpretations of others' emotions may be affected by the social characteristics of the emotion displayer. In Study 1, we ask Black women, Black men, White women, and White men for their self-reports of how they would, themselves, respond to a hypothetical situation. In Studies 2 and 3, we present participants with the same hypothetical situation as in Study 1, but ask participants to interpret the response of another person. We vary the race and gender of the person in the situation to see how these characteristics affect the way participants interpret that person's emotions. Finally, Study 4 links differences in perceived emotions to outcomes such as perceived warmth, likeability, job performance, and hiring. Participants are shown videos where the race, gender, and emotional displays of job applicants are experimentally manipulated. They are then asked to evaluate the applicants. The project will be of great importance to understanding the functioning and communication of diverse working groups and will also serve as a training site for student researchers learning experimental research techniques.