Jennifer S. Hunt

Responding to Societal Devaluation: Effects of Perceived Personal and Group Discrimination on the Ethnic Group Identification and Personal Self-Esteem of Latino/Latina Adolescents

The Rejection-Identification model (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999) posits that perceived discrimination may lead to increased ingroup identification, which can help maintain psychological well-being in the face of societal devaluation. To address unknown aspects of this model, we examined the effects of perceived personal and group discrimination on the group identification and personal self-esteem of Latino/Latina adolescents. Results showed that perceived group discrimination was related to higher personal self-esteem via direct and indirect routes (i.e. through group identification). However, perceived personal discrimination was directly and indirectly associated with lower personal self-esteem. Moreover, these two levels of discrimination showed interactive effects on both group identification and personal self-esteem. These results highlight the importance of distinguishing between levels of discrimination in the Rejection-Identification model.

Research on Gender and the Law: Where Are We Going, Where Have We Been?

This article provides an overview of issues related to research on gender and the law. Following a discussion of the ways in which gender and the law interact, we assess the extent to which Law and Human Behavior (LHB) has addressed the issue of gender. Specifically, we present the results of our analysis of the role of gender in articles published in LHB from 1990 through 1996. We discuss the relatively few gender-relevant studies that appeared, as well as comment upon the attention given to gender by research with other primary foci. We then discuss various strategies for conducting gender research and their implications for research on gender and the law. We conclude by introducing the articles in this special issue on gender and the law, commenting on how they add to our accumulated knowledge in this area.

College students’ mental models for recognizing anorexia and bulimia nervosa

Knowledge about eating disorders influences lay peoples ability to recognize individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) and refer them to professional treatment. We assessed mental models (stored knowledge) of AN and BN in 106 college students. Results indicated that most students have general, but not specific, information about AN and BNs symptoms, consequences, causes, duration, and cures. They also believe that people with eating disorders tend to be young, White women. These findings suggest that lay recognition of eating disorders may be based primarily on observations of dysfunctional eating behaviors and therefore facilitated by additional knowledge.

How jurors use and misuse character evidence

The Federal Rules of Evidence allow defendants to offer testimony about their good character, but that testimony can be impeached with cross-examination or a rebuttal witness. It is assumed that jurors use the defenses character evidence (CE) to form guilt and conviction judgments but use impeachment evidence only to assess the character witnesss credibility. Two experiments tested these assumptions by presenting mock jurors with various forms of CE and impeachment. Participants made trait ratings for the character witness and defendant and guilt and conviction judgments. Positive CE did not affect guilt or conviction judgments, but cross-examination caused a backlash in which judgments were harsher than when no CE was given. Using path analysis, the authors tested a model of the process by which CE and impeachment affect defendant and witness impressions and guilt and conviction judgments. Implications for juror decision making are discussed.

The Other Side of the Diaspora: Race, Threat, and the Social Psychology of Evacuee Reception in Predominantly White Communities

This article provides a social psychological framework for understanding the reception of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in predominantly White relocation communities. According to this framework, racial prejudice and perceptions of economic and social threat are likely to have an important influence on residents’ reactions to the evacuees. In the “Katrina in my Community Study,” the authors surveyed 532 residents from Colorado Springs, CO, Salt Lake City, UT, and San Antonio, TX—three cities that had African American populations well below the national average and that received large numbers of Katrina evacuees. The respondent’s evaluations of and judgments about the evacuees, including overall attitudes and support for continued assistance, were explained to a greater extent by perceived threat and prejudice than by their actual experiences with the evacuees. Thus, at least in predominantly White communities, race and subjective feelings of threat may frame decisions about helping newcomers to a community, even when need is salient.

Implicit Bias and Hate Crimes: A Psychological Framework and Critical Race Theory Analysis

On August 19, 1991, ongoing tensions between African Americans and Lubavitch Jews in Crown Heights, Brooklyn erupted into widespread rioting and violence after a Jewish driver killed a 7-year-old African American boy and seriously injured his cousin. The African American community was enraged by allegations that the police and ambulances gave preferential treatment to the Lubavitchers at the scene of the accident. During the riots, calls were made to “Kill the Jews.” Subsequently, a Hasidic man, Yankel Rosenbaum, was surrounded by a group of African American men and stabbed to death by Lemrick Nelson. At trial, Nelson testified that he acted without premeditation and that he was drunk at the time of the stabbing (Conaway, 1996; Streissguth, 2003). Another such incident occurred on December 19, 1986, when three African American men—Timothy Grimes, Michael Griffith, and Cedric Sandiford— stopped in the predominantly White neighborhood of Howard Beach, Queens after their car broke down. They were confronted by a group of White neighborhood youth who used racial epithets and told them to leave the area. Later that evening, Grimes, Griffith, and Sandiford were exiting a pizzeria when the youth returned, armed with baseball bats. They severely beat the three men and attempted to chase them away, shouting statements such as, “There’s niggers in the boulevard. Let’s kill ‘em” (Levin & McDevitt, 1993, p. 5). While trying to escape his attackers, Michael Griffith ran onto a parkway and was killed by oncoming traffic (Perry, 2001; Streissguth, 2003). The Crown Heights and Howard Beach incidents—which are similar in many ways, but very different in others—are only two of the thousands of racially motivated violent acts that have occurred in the United States (for reviews, see, e.g., Levin & McDevitt, 1993; Perry, 2001; Streissguth, 2003). Although racially motivated aggression has occurred since European settlers first arrived in the Americas, it was not until the late 1970s that such acts were given the label of “hate crimes” and treated as distinct entities (Streissguth, 2003). Since that time, hate crimes have been legally defined as criminal acts influenced by the victims’ group membership and/or racial prejudice (Mennenger, 2005). The majority of