How Racial Typicality Relates to Perceptions of In-Group Belonging and Stereotyping Among African American Youth

• In Event: Growing Up Across Settings: Finding Support, Identity, and Motivation in a Multisetting World

Abstract

This university-school partnership examined relations of behavioral and physical racial typicality to peer belonging and in-group stereotyping among African American adolescents and college students. Participants watched animated clips of African Americans varying in typicality. They rated characters’ likelihood of in-group belonging and stereotypical traits and completed surveys assessing racial identity, racial typicality, and intra-racial discrimination. Students gave higher in-group belonging ratings to characters who were more behaviorally typical, regardless of skin tone. Students rated behaviorally atypical characters as more likely to take an honors class than other characters. Students’ racial identity and age predicted their perceptions of in-group members. The partnership shared implications with students about how peer belonging and stereotypes influence achievement and success (Murray et al., 2012).

Authors

• Antoinette Wilson, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Catherine R. Cooper, University of California - Santa Cruz