Cognitive Costs of Exposure to Racial Prejudice - Research Paper Example

? Cognitive Costs of Exposure to Racial Prejudice Cognitive Costs of Exposure to Racial Prejudice Introduction Modern modes of prejudice involve a mixture of positive and negative events harder and ambiguous to categorize. Prejudice targets are likely to experience cognitive impairment in the process of trying to determine the basis of negative events they experience in life. The article addresses the extent to which prejudice affects personal cognitive functioning. Cognitive costs of disclosure to unclear versus blatant prejudice should relate to a person’s previous experience with prejudice. Consequently, the issue in this context is addressed separately for ethnic marginal White and blacks. Ethnic minorities’ experience with prejudice Individuals from some ethnic minority sets grow up perceiving themselves as prospective prejudice targets. According to Major and Crocker (1989), ambiguity is a self-protection function since attributing mistreatment top discrimination instead of individual’s idiosyncratic qualities can hinder self-esteem. It may also influence cognition and affect. (Salvatore and Shelton, 2007) Experiences with prejudice by white Americans Earlier experiences with prejudice reconstruct a person’s coping strategies, which in turn determine cognitive disturbance following an experience characterized by prejudice. Differences between disadvantaged and advantaged sets in experience with prejudice Anti-white prejudice is so rare that whites do not tend to perceive themselves as probable targets of prejudice. Blacks are more stigma conscious than whites are. Whites are not likely to perceive prejudice (either against blacks or against whites) under uncertainty conditions. Blacks were more likely to brand potentially racist actions as cases of prejudice than whites were, despite of the targets race. Whites are insensitive to subtle prejudice cues; regardless of the targeted race, thus they would not likely experience cognition disturbances following exposure to ambiguous prejudice. Due to the infrequency of overt racism, white do not seem to develop the coping strategies that would barrier them from cognitive disruptions. The authors’ hypotheses Higher-level cognitive function would likely be depleted in difference circumstances for black and white individuals. Blacks’ stroop performance was expected to be worse in ambiguous-prejudice situation than in blatant-prejudice situation since they would be enforced to struggle with attributional uncertainty in the previous situation. In contrast, Whites were expected to be unlikely to record the ambiguous cues as latent prejudice indicators rather, their stroop performance was expected to be impaired in the condition of blatant-prejudice since they would be unfamiliar to experience prejudice in a professional setting and would thus lack skills for coping with this. The research design Two and hundred fifty students participated in the case study. Students were to help in deciding whether changes were to be made on the way the company decided on hiring. The depended variable in this study is the way of hiring human resource officers. It was measured by evaluating some of the latest hiring decisions by the organization, by either a group or one human resource officer working solely. (Salvatore and Shelton, 2007). All subjects were randomly assigned to the sole officer situation. They later received a job description and a resume file plus an evaluation sheet assigned for each of four supposed job candidate. Each candidate’s qualification level and hire ability was rated. Lastly, Subjects were given a file with an information sheet concerning the human resources officers in addition to his set of hiring recommendations. The two independent variables were a manipulated prejudice level and naturally occurring groups. The non-prejudiced group was the white while the prejudiced were blacks. In the no-prejudice situation, the human resource officer suggested hiring the best candidate, with the rationales being neutral in terms of race. In the other variable, the human resource officer suggested hiring an unqualified candidate of his own race (white), over a more capable candidate of the other race. In the unclear-prejudice situation, the officer’s commends were unbiased with regard to race, thus the reasons for hiring him were unclear. The blatant-prejudice situation’s comments invoked race as an issue in the decision, meaning that the decision was biased. Major findings/analysis From figure 1, the authors’ predictions were supported. White subjects and black subjects illustrated very different reaction patterns to the three conditions of prejudice. Findings revealed that blacks experienced more interference than whites in the ambiguous-prejudice situation did. Whites experienced more interruption than blacks in blatant-prejudice situation did. Interference was comparable for whites and blacks in the no-prejudice state. Cognitive functioning was affected by the races in such a way that, the stroop results were determined by the battle between the races of the elevator and the subject’s race. Cognitive depletion was eased when the evaluative condition featured a match for the subject’s race and the race of the human resource officer, that is, both white and both black, and the candidate was a racial member of the out-group. Cognitive depletion was worsened when they evaluative circumstance featured a battle for job candidate’s race and the subject’s race, in that the human resource officer creating the hiring proposal was a racial out-group member. (Salvatore and Shelton, 2007) Conclusion The findings of the study have vital inference for cognitive functioning in marginal groups. It sheds light to the conditions under which experiences with prejudice based on race disrupts cognitive functioning. The report revealed that cognitive impacts for blacks and whites differed as a function of precision in prejudice cues they experienced. The minority are vulnerable to cognitive impairment resultant from exposure to unclear prejudice. According to the authors, encountering blatant prejudice and ambiguous prejudice may disrupt cognitive functioning whites and blacks respectively, resulting in suboptimal performance on duties that need the on-line deployment of notice. Future study should focus on important interventions that reduce this disruption, for individuals of all races to be equipped to cope and anticipate with prejudice devoid of incurring personal costs. Reference Salvatore. J., & Shelton. N. (2007). Cognitive costs of exposure to racial prejudice. Association for Psychological Science, 18 (9), 810-815. Read More