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Description
Stereotyping research has provided a substantial amount of evidence for the process by which stereotypes are used to make judgments about individuals based on their group membership. More recent work, however, has suggested that stereotypes not only vary between groups (e.g., Black vs. White), stereotypes can also vary within a group (i.e., within-category variation). For instance, there are physical features that are considered to be more common of a Black individual than a White individual, such as darker skin, broader nose, or courser hair. Thus, individuals who have these highly afrocentric features are more likely to be perceived as possessing more stereotypic characteristics associated with Black Americans (e.g., athletic) than individuals whose afrocentric features are less pronounced. The current study further investigated this idea of within-category variation by focusing on two particular physical cues, afrocentric features (i.e., a visual cue) and vocal femininity (i.e., vocal cue that indicates the extent to which an individual's voice sounds feminine). To date, research on stereotyping from the within-category perspective has focused on the impact of vocal and visual cues in isolation. Accordingly, the present study addressed this issue by concurrently manipulating both visual and vocal cue-based information, thereby providing further support for within-category stereotyping as well as extending this work by investigating the interplay of these two cues. Participants provided judgments of 4 White or 4 Black targets who were either all male or all female. For each group (White female, White male, Black male, Black female) two high and two low afrocentric faces were chosen. These target photographs were paired with either a high or low feminine voice clip. Participants provided ratings of competence and warmth traits for each target. It was predicted that the interplay of vocal femininity and afrocentric features would be particularly powerful, such that the various cue combinations (e.g., high afrocentricity, low vocal femininity) would produce different effects. Specifically, targets high on both cues (more so, than any other cue combination), were expected to experience a double whammy effect, whereby targets with highly afrocentric features and a highly feminine voice should be rated as incompetent, but warm. Results indicated that there was a significant interaction between dimension (competence vs. warmth), afrocentricity, and vocal femininity. While targets high on both cues displayed the double whammy effect, targets low on both cues, or targets low on one cue and high on the other, did not experience the same drop in competence. Further, this 3-way interaction was significantly impacted by target gender, but not by target race. These findings provide evidence that beyond group membership, the extent to which stereotypic characteristics are attributed to an individual depends on the combination of their afrocentric features and vocal femininity.
