Brancaleone Paul J, Cofresí Roberto U, Volpert-Esmond Hannah I, Amodio David M, Ito Tiffany A, Bartholow Bruce D
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, 340 Iowa Ave, Iowa City, IA 52242, United States.
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, 210 McAlester Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, United States.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2025 Apr 9;20(1). doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaf026.
Prior research has supported some aspects of a theorized prejudice self-regulation model. We provide the first test of the full model-based process of bias regulation as it unfolds in real time. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from White undergraduates at two large American universities (N = 130; 40% female) during a racial stereotype priming task. Attention to Black male face primes, indexed by the P2 ERP, increased following self-regulation failures. In turn, within-person, trial-to-trial variability in attention to Black male faces predicted variability in bias expression. The latter effect was moderated by individual differences in internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS). Specifically, among lower-IMS individuals, trials in which Black faces elicited relatively larger P2 amplitudes (relative to an individual's own average P2 amplitude) were associated with increased behavioral race bias. In contrast, and consistent with theory, among higher-IMS individuals trials in which Black faces elicited larger relative P2 amplitudes were associated with decreased bias. Findings provide direct evidence supporting the temporal sequencing of race-bias regulation and identify within-person variability in attention to race as a potential mechanism for determining when and in whom bias will be regulated.
先前的研究支持了一种理论化的偏见自我调节模型的某些方面。我们首次对基于该完整模型的偏见调节过程进行了实时测试。在美国两所大型大学的白人本科生（N = 130；40%为女性）进行种族刻板印象启动任务期间，记录了与事件相关的电位（ERP）。以P2 ERP为指标，在自我调节失败后，对黑人男性面孔启动刺激的注意力增加。反过来，在个体内部，对黑人男性面孔注意力的逐次试验变异性预测了偏见表达的变异性。后一种效应受到无偏见反应的内部动机（IMS）个体差异的调节。具体而言，在低IMS个体中，黑人面孔引发相对较大P2波幅（相对于个体自身平均P2波幅）的试验与行为上的种族偏见增加相关。相比之下，与理论一致的是，在高IMS个体中，黑人面孔引发较大相对P2波幅的试验与偏见减少相关。研究结果提供了直接证据，支持种族偏见调节的时间顺序，并确定个体对种族注意力的变异性是决定何时以及对谁的偏见将得到调节的潜在机制。
