Essentializing Race: Implications for Bicultural Individuals' Cognition and Physiological Reactivity

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01901.x
• Publication Date: 2007-05-07T04:05:26Z
• Authors: Melody Manchi Chao; Jing Chen; Glenn I. Roisman; Ying-yi Hong
• Keywords: Essentialism; Reactivity

It is a widely held belief that racial groups have underlying essences. We hypothesized bicultural individuals who hold this essentialist about race are oriented to perceive rigid interracial boundaries and experience difficulty passing between their ethnic culture the host culture. As predicted, we found more strongly Chinese American participants endorsed an race, less effective they were in switching rapidly cultural frames reaction time task (Study 1), greater emotional reactivity exhibited (reflected heightened skin conductance) while talked experiences 2). Taken together, these findings suggest beliefs set up mind-set influences how navigate cultures.