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Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism
Purpose: Women are penalized if they do not behave in a stereotype-congruent manner (Heilman, 1983, 2001; Eagly and Carli, 2007). For example, because women are not expected to be agentic they incur an “agency penalty” for expressing anger, dominance or assertiveness (Rudman, 1998; Rudman and Glick,...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4553896/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26379612 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01311 |
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author | Opie, Tina R. Phillips, Katherine W. |
author_facet | Opie, Tina R. Phillips, Katherine W. |
author_sort | Opie, Tina R. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Purpose: Women are penalized if they do not behave in a stereotype-congruent manner (Heilman, 1983, 2001; Eagly and Carli, 2007). For example, because women are not expected to be agentic they incur an “agency penalty” for expressing anger, dominance or assertiveness (Rudman, 1998; Rudman and Glick, 1999, 2001; Eagly and Karau, 2002; Rudman and Fairchild, 2004; Brescoll and Uhlmann, 2008; Livingston et al., 2012). Yet, all women are not equally penalized (Livingston et al., 2012). We make a novel contribution by examining how both White and Black evaluators respond to displays of Black women’s dominance, in this case, whether Black women choose to wear Afrocentric or Eurocentric hairstyles. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted three experimental studies to examine the influence of target hairstyle and participant race on ratings of the target’s professionalism (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and dominance (Study 2). Study 1 was an online experimental study with 200 participants (112 females, 87 males, 1 missing gender; 160 Whites, 19 Blacks, 11 Latinos, 7 Asian Americans and 3 who identify as “other”; M(age) = 35.5, SD = 11.4). Study 2 was an online experimental study with 510 participants (276 women, 234 males; 256 Blacks, 254 Whites; M(age) = 41.25 years, SD = 12.21). Study 3 was an online experimental study with 291 participants (141 Blacks, 150 Whites, M(age) = 47.5 years, SD = 11.66). Findings: Black, as compared to White, evaluators gave higher agency penalties to Black employment candidates when they donned Afrocentric versus Eurocentric hair, rating them as more dominant and less professional. Implications: The present research illustrates the significance of considering both target and evaluator race when examining the influence of agency, and specifically dominance, on ratings of professionalism. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4553896 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-45538962015-09-14 Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism Opie, Tina R. Phillips, Katherine W. Front Psychol Psychology Purpose: Women are penalized if they do not behave in a stereotype-congruent manner (Heilman, 1983, 2001; Eagly and Carli, 2007). For example, because women are not expected to be agentic they incur an “agency penalty” for expressing anger, dominance or assertiveness (Rudman, 1998; Rudman and Glick, 1999, 2001; Eagly and Karau, 2002; Rudman and Fairchild, 2004; Brescoll and Uhlmann, 2008; Livingston et al., 2012). Yet, all women are not equally penalized (Livingston et al., 2012). We make a novel contribution by examining how both White and Black evaluators respond to displays of Black women’s dominance, in this case, whether Black women choose to wear Afrocentric or Eurocentric hairstyles. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted three experimental studies to examine the influence of target hairstyle and participant race on ratings of the target’s professionalism (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and dominance (Study 2). Study 1 was an online experimental study with 200 participants (112 females, 87 males, 1 missing gender; 160 Whites, 19 Blacks, 11 Latinos, 7 Asian Americans and 3 who identify as “other”; M(age) = 35.5, SD = 11.4). Study 2 was an online experimental study with 510 participants (276 women, 234 males; 256 Blacks, 254 Whites; M(age) = 41.25 years, SD = 12.21). Study 3 was an online experimental study with 291 participants (141 Blacks, 150 Whites, M(age) = 47.5 years, SD = 11.66). Findings: Black, as compared to White, evaluators gave higher agency penalties to Black employment candidates when they donned Afrocentric versus Eurocentric hair, rating them as more dominant and less professional. Implications: The present research illustrates the significance of considering both target and evaluator race when examining the influence of agency, and specifically dominance, on ratings of professionalism. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC4553896/ /pubmed/26379612 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01311 Text en Copyright © 2015 Opie and Phillips. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Opie, Tina R. Phillips, Katherine W. Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism |
title | Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism |
title_full | Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism |
title_fullStr | Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism |
title_full_unstemmed | Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism |
title_short | Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism |
title_sort | hair penalties: the negative influence of afrocentric hair on ratings of black women’s dominance and professionalism |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4553896/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26379612 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01311 |
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