Invisible at the Intersection: The Influence of Prototypical Beliefs on Group Identification in Black Women

Date

2020-08-17

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

New York, NY. Stern College for Women. Yeshiva University.

YU Faculty Profile

Abstract

Black women, being non-prototypical of both their social groups (WOMAN and BLACK), experience a unique form of discrimination referred to as psychological invisibility. We aimed to understand how prototypical beliefs impact Black women’s identification with their gendered and racial ingroups. 251 Black and white female participants completed a speeded categorization prototypicality task, which measured the strength of their belief that femininity is associated with whiteness. We also measured their implicit identification with WOMAN using the Brief Implicit Association Test, along with their explicit identification with WOMAN, BLACK/WHITE, and BLACK WOMAN/WHITE WOMAN. We found that along all the explicit identification measures, Black women reported significantly stronger identification than white women. We also saw that among Black women who had a high implicit identification with WOMAN and reflected strong prototypical beliefs, there was a trend towards explicitly suppressing their Black identity and over-emphasizing their white identity. These findings reflect the way prototypical beliefs about whiteness being associated with femininity impact Black women and reveal one of the ways psychological invisibility contributes to a Black woman’s self conception.

Description

Student honors thesis / Open Access

Keywords

Prototypical Beliefs, Black women, group identification

Citation

Levy, Shira. Invisible at the Intersection: The Influence of Prototypical Beliefs on Group Identification in Black Women. Presented to the S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Completion of the Program Stern College for Women Yeshiva University, New York. August 17, 2020. Mentor: Dr. Lisa Chalik, Psychology.