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White Students’ Perceptions of the Costs and Consequences of Being Black

Many whites explicitly believe that their race has had no impact on their accomplishments in life. The current study used the contingent valuation method to implicitly measure the value of being white—or alternatively, the cost of being black—among a sample of white college students. Participants we...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Exum, M. Lyn
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9013407/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35464774
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12552-022-09364-5
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author Exum, M. Lyn
author_facet Exum, M. Lyn
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description Many whites explicitly believe that their race has had no impact on their accomplishments in life. The current study used the contingent valuation method to implicitly measure the value of being white—or alternatively, the cost of being black—among a sample of white college students. Participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario in which their racial appearance was altered due to a medical mishap, and then asked to identify the negative consequences they would experience as a result of this change. Participants also assigned a dollar value to their race by reporting the smallest financial settlement they would accept as compensation for the mishap. Results revealed that white students who imagined being black anticipated financial consequences significantly more often than black students who imaged being white, but they anticipated psychosocial consequences significantly less often. The median financial settlement for whiteness was relatively low, while the mean value was quite large and highlighted the importance of whiteness among certain respondents. These findings are discussed, with suggestions for future research.
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spelling pubmed-90134072022-04-18 White Students’ Perceptions of the Costs and Consequences of Being Black Exum, M. Lyn Race Soc Probl Article Many whites explicitly believe that their race has had no impact on their accomplishments in life. The current study used the contingent valuation method to implicitly measure the value of being white—or alternatively, the cost of being black—among a sample of white college students. Participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario in which their racial appearance was altered due to a medical mishap, and then asked to identify the negative consequences they would experience as a result of this change. Participants also assigned a dollar value to their race by reporting the smallest financial settlement they would accept as compensation for the mishap. Results revealed that white students who imagined being black anticipated financial consequences significantly more often than black students who imaged being white, but they anticipated psychosocial consequences significantly less often. The median financial settlement for whiteness was relatively low, while the mean value was quite large and highlighted the importance of whiteness among certain respondents. These findings are discussed, with suggestions for future research. Springer US 2022-04-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9013407/ /pubmed/35464774 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12552-022-09364-5 Text en © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Article
Exum, M. Lyn
White Students’ Perceptions of the Costs and Consequences of Being Black
title White Students’ Perceptions of the Costs and Consequences of Being Black
title_full White Students’ Perceptions of the Costs and Consequences of Being Black
title_fullStr White Students’ Perceptions of the Costs and Consequences of Being Black
title_full_unstemmed White Students’ Perceptions of the Costs and Consequences of Being Black
title_short White Students’ Perceptions of the Costs and Consequences of Being Black
title_sort white students’ perceptions of the costs and consequences of being black
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9013407/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35464774
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12552-022-09364-5
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