Kurinec Courtney A, Weaver Charles A
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Dec 24;12:785283. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.785283. eCollection 2021.
Black Americans who are perceived as more racially phenotypical-that is, who possess more physical traits that are closely associated with their race-are more often associated with racial stereotypes. These stereotypes, including assumptions about criminality, can influence how Black Americans are treated by the legal system. However, it is unclear whether other forms of racial stereotypicality, such as a person's way of speaking, also activate stereotypes about Black Americans. We investigated the links between speech stereotypicality and racial stereotypes (Experiment 1) and racial phenotype bias (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, participants listened to audio recordings of Black speakers and rated how stereotypical they found the speaker, the likely race and nationality of the speaker, and indicated which adjectives the average person would likely associate with this speaker. In Experiment 2, participants listened to recordings of weakly or strongly stereotypical Black American speakers and indicated which of two faces (either weakly or strongly phenotypical) was more likely to be the speaker's. We found that speakers whose voices were rated as more highly stereotypical for Black Americans were more likely to be associated with stereotypes about Black Americans (Experiment 1) and with more stereotypically Black faces (Experiment 2). These findings indicate that speech stereotypicality activates racial stereotypes as well as expectations about the stereotypicality of an individual's appearance. As a result, the activation of stereotypes based on speech may lead to bias in suspect descriptions or eyewitness identifications.
被认为在种族表型上更典型的美国黑人，也就是说，拥有更多与他们种族密切相关的身体特征的美国黑人，更常与种族刻板印象联系在一起。这些刻板印象，包括对犯罪行为的假设，会影响美国黑人在法律系统中的待遇。然而，尚不清楚其他形式的种族刻板印象，比如一个人的说话方式，是否也会引发对美国黑人的刻板印象。我们研究了言语刻板印象与种族刻板印象（实验1）以及种族表型偏见（实验2）之间的联系。在实验1中，参与者听黑人说话者的录音，并对他们认为说话者有多刻板、说话者可能的种族和国籍进行评分，并指出普通人可能会与这个说话者联系在一起的形容词。在实验2中，参与者听具有弱或强刻板印象的美国黑人说话者的录音，并指出两张脸（要么是弱表型要么是强表型）中哪一张更可能是说话者的脸。我们发现，那些声音被评为对美国黑人具有更高刻板印象的说话者，更有可能与对美国黑人的刻板印象联系在一起（实验1），以及与更具刻板印象的黑人面孔联系在一起（实验2）。这些发现表明，言语刻板印象会激活种族刻板印象以及对一个人外表刻板印象的期望。因此，基于言语的刻板印象激活可能会导致在嫌疑人描述或目击证人辨认中出现偏见。
