Stigma by Prejudice Transfer: Racism Threatens White Women and Sexism Threatens Men of Color

• Published in: Psychological science Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 445 - 461
• Main Authors: Sanchez, Diana T., Chaney, Kimberly E., Manuel, Sara K., Wilton, Leigh S., Remedios, Jessica D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2017; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adult; African Americans; African cultural groups; Aged; Attribution; Dominance; Feedback; Female; Humans; Liking; Male; Middle Aged; Minority groups; Prejudice; Racism; Racism - psychology; Sexism; Sexism - psychology; Social Dominance; Social Perception; Social Stigma; Stigma; White people; Women; Young Adult; prejudice; preregistered; open materials; racial and ethnic attitudes and relations; open data; sex differences
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797616686218

In the current research, we posited the stigma-by-prejudice-transfer effect, which proposes that stigmatized group members (e.g., White women) are threatened by prejudice that is directed at other stigmatized group members (e.g., African Americans) because they believe that prejudice has monolithic qualities. While most stigma researchers assume that there is a direct correspondence between the attitude of prejudiced individuals and the targets (i.e., sexism affects women, racism affects racial minorities), the five studies reported here demonstrate that White women can be threatened by racism (Study 1, 3, 4, and 5) and men of color by sexism (Study 2). Robust to perceptions of liking and the order in which measures were administered, results showed that prejudice transfers between racism and sexism were driven by the presumed social dominance orientation of the prejudiced individual. In addition, important downstream consequences, such as the increased likelihood of anticipated stigma, expectations of unfair treatment, and the attribution of negative feedback to sexism, appeared for stigmatized individuals.