Michael A. Zárate

Cultural threat and perceived realistic group conflict as dual predictors of prejudice

Recent research has focused on how perceived intergroup similarity influences stereotyping and prejudice. Very little is known, however, regarding how the quality or type of similarity influences intergroup relations. Presented is a methodology that allows one to manipulate the quality of perceived intergroup similarity. This methodology is used to test contrasting predictions about how perceptions of intergroup similarity on self-stereotyped interpersonal and work-related traits predict attitudes towards immigrants. Predictions were derived from cultural threat and perceived realistic group conflict theories. Some participants were asked to rate how similar they perceived their in-group was to Mexican immigrants, whereas others were asked to evaluate how the groups differed on the given traits. Control participants evaluated themselves on the given traits. Participants were presented with either interpersonal traits or work related traits as stimuli. The main dependent measures were a perceived realistic conflict scale, a prejudice scale, and a stereotyping scale. All three scales used Mexican immigrants as the target category. When interpersonal traits were made salient, contrast comparisons led to more negative attitudes towards immigrants, supporting a cultural threat hypothesis. When work-related traits were made salient, similarity comparisons led to more prejudice and more negative attitudes towards immigrants, supporting a perceived realistic conflict hypothesis. Thus, a perceived threat to either the cultural norm or economic well being led to more negative attitudes towards immigrants. Results are discussed for their relevance to models of intergroup relations.

Language exclusion and the consequences of perceived ostracism in the workplace

The current research examined the impact of workplace ostracism on work-related attitudes and behaviors. Participants read a vignette describing a series of workplace interactions between the participant and two coworkers. During the interactions, participants were included in a group discussion, ostracized by coworkers in English or ostracized in Spanish. Consistent with predictions, ostracized participants reported lower levels of organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors than included participants. Ostracism by language resulted in lower work group commitment and higher levels of symbolic threat compared with included participants and those ostracized in English. Increased prejudice was also reported by participants exposed to language ostracism. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for general attitudinal processes and employee-related work attitudes and behaviors.

Attitudes Toward Immigrant Groups and the September 11 Terrorist Attacks

The current research examined prejudice and perceived threat toward Mexican and Arab immigrants/immigration along the U.S./Mexico border. Sample 1 (n = 84) was collected before September 11; attitudes toward Mexican immigrants were assessed. Sample 2 (n = 140) was collected one month after September 11 and Sample 3 (n = 180) was collected one year later; attitudes toward both Mexican and Arab immigrants were assessed. U.S. citizens completed a social attitudes survey assessing symbolic threat, perceived realistic threat, and prejudice. Individual differences, such as American identity and political orientation, were also measured. As predicted, in samples 2 and 3 Arab immigrants engendered greater levels of symbolic threat and prejudice among participants compared to Mexican immigrants and immigration. Participants also reported greater perceived realistic threat from Mexican immigrants after September 11 than before. American identity was positively related to threat and prejudice with respect to both i...

Extending reducer/augmenter theory into the emotion domain: The role of affect in regulating stimulation level

Abstract According to reducer/augmenter theory, augmenters are assumed to react to sensory stimuli with enhanced responsiveness, whereas reducers respond to the same stimuli with dampened responsiveness. Due to their generally understimulated condition, reducers are motivated to seek out stronger or more intense forms of sensory stimulation. When emotion is viewed as a source of stimulation, it becomes plausible to hypothesize that reducers and augmenters may differentially utilize their emotions to modulate stimulation level. Results from Study 1 show that, after a period of boredom, reducers chose more frequently than augmenters to participate in an arousing, emotion-induction experiment, even though they believed the experience would involve the induction of negative affect. Reducers also found the initial boredom-induction task to be significantly more boring and less interesting than the augmenters. Study 2 found that reducers were more likely than augmenters to engage in activities that have a higher probability of evoking emotion in their natural, ongoing lives. Reducers also exhibited episodes of stronger affect and more frequently novelty- and sensation-seeking in their ongoing natural lives than augmenters. Implications of these results for reducer/augmenter theory and for understanding the role of emotion in arousal regulation are discussed, and directions for future research are proposed.

Cultural pluralism and prejudice reduction.

Predictions derived from models of cultural pluralism and cultural assimilation were tested. Previous research has shown that highlighting differences between ethnic groups, in conjunction with self-focus, can reduce prejudice. The presented research tested the following questions: (a) does highlighting differences function to reduce prejudice between groups that are dissimilar to each other as well as between those that are highly similar, (b) is prejudice reduction due to distinctiveness a function of the lessened ingroup positivity or lessened outgroup negativity, (c) does making distinctiveness salient reduce prejudice toward only the distinctive outgroups or to outgroups more generically, and (d) does the manipulation equally impact African American, Mexican American, Mexican National, and White American participants? Results demonstrated that highlighting differences while simultaneously focusing on the self reduces prejudice, although similarity mediates the relationship with those who are perceived as more different. Distinctiveness also reduced outgroup negativity and generalized to other outgroups. Finally, the manipulation reduced prejudice only for White Americans, Mexican Americans, and Mexican Nationals.

Code-Switching Across Brainstorming Sessions: Implications for the Revised Hierarchical Model of Bilingual Language Processing

The revised hierarchical model (RHM) of bilingual language processing posits independent word form representations for the dominant language (L1) and the nondominant language (L2), facilitated translation from L2 words to L1 words, access to common concepts for L1 and L2, and stronger activation of concepts for L1 than for L2. Spanish-English and English-Spanish bilinguals brainstormed for two sessions; half switched languages (L1-L2 or L2-L1) and half stayed in the same language (L1-L1 or L2-L2) across sessions. In both sessions, L1 brainstorming resulted in more efficient idea productivity than L2 brainstorming, supporting stronger concept activation for L1, consistent with the RHM. Switching languages from L2 to L1 resulted in the most efficient idea productivity in Session 2, suggesting that switching to L1 not only permits strong concept activation, but also the activation of concepts that are relatively different than those activated by L2, inconsistent with the RHM. Switching languages increased the proportion of Session 1 ideas repeated during Session 2, despite instructions not to repeat. This finding suggests that there is activation of concepts as well as word forms in same language brainstorming and that this dual activation aids in following instructions not to repeat, consistent with the RHM. It is suggested that the RHM be re-specified to accommodate the notion that L1 and L2 access relatively different concepts.

Neurocognitive Underpinnings of Face Perception: Further Evidence of Distinct Person and Group Perception Processes

A model of social perception is presented and tested. The model is based on cognitive neuroscience models and proposes that the right cerebral hemisphere is more efficient at processing combinations of features whereas the left hemisphere is superior at identifying single features. These processes are hypothesized to produce person and group-based representations, respectively. Individuating or personalizing experience with an outgroup member was expected to facilitate the perception of the individuating features and inhibit the perception of the group features. In the presented study, participants were asked to learn about various ingroup and outgroup targets. Later, participants demonstrated that categorization response speeds to old targets were slower in the left hemisphere than in the right, particularly for outgroup members, as predicted. These findings are discussed for their relevance to models of social perception and stereotyping.

Linguistic ostracism causes prejudice: Support for a serial mediation effect

ABSTRACT This research investigated the effects of linguistic ostracism, defined as any communication setting in which a target individual (or group) is ostracized by another individual (or group) in a language that the target has extremely limited ability to understand. Participants were included or ostracized by their group members during a computer-mediated group discussion. Half of the ostracized participants were linguistically ostracized via their group members conversing with one another in a language the participant did not know well (Spanish Ostracism: SO), or in a language the participant did know well (English Ostracism: EO). SO participants reported feeling less similar than both included and EO participants. SO participants also reported being angrier and expressed more prejudice than included participants (and EO participants using effect size estimates). Results also provided support for the hypothesized serial mediation model. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for intergroup relations.

Researchers of Color, Fame, and Impact

Fame and eminence, as traditionally measured, limit the definition of impact to the publication world. We add two types of impact to the traditional measures of fame and eminence. Many of the traditional measures of fame or eminence are based on social-network connections, whereby individuals appoint other people to positions of eminence. Editorial boards are one specific example. Eminence is also limited to number of publications, for example, with little regard for the impact of those publications at the societal level. In addition to the dominant measures of eminence, societal impact broadens the definition of impact to reflect real-world changes. Two examples include mentoring, which is rarely mentioned as a criterion for eminence, and policy value, such as when research influences important public policy. These additions are discussed in reference to the general underrepresentation of researchers of color in academia.

Expanding Our Borders: Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology's Special Issue on Immigration

Introduces the current special issue of the journal, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. This special issue focuses on the topic of immigration and highlights the important within group differences often overlooked when immigrants are conceptualized as a homogeneous group. The articles in this journal consider a variety of microsystems, such as educational settings, ethnic and gay communities, and communities with anti-immigration laws.