Research Symposium

BIO

Hi, I'm Martina, I'm a second-year student who is interested in researching human behavior and its underlying causes.

The Role of Race in Harm Perception and Retaliation

Abstract

When performing an ambiguously aggressive act, people perceive that act as more violent when the agent of harm is Black versus White. Thus, people may perceive greater harm when the agent is Black. Alternatively, people expect ingroup members to behave prosocially, suggesting that harm may be perceived as more harmful when caused by a racial ingroup than outgroup members. Yet, when given the opportunity to punish Black or White individuals, people administered more intense shocks to the Black versus White individual, suggesting that people may more harshly retaliate when the agent of harm is Black versus White. In the current work, White females engaged in a reaction-timed task with either a Black or White female “partner” (a confederate). All participants lost the first trial and were “shocked by their partner”. In reality, all participants received the same shock they labeled as a seven out of ten during a shock calibration stage. After winning the second trial, all participants chose the shock intensity for their partner to receive. The results indicated that while participants perceived greater harm from the White versus Black partner, they delivered more intense shocks to the Black than White partner.

Keywords: Psychology, Race, Harm, Behavior