UROP Project

A Narrow American Exemplar: Status Threat and the Pressure to Conform to Norms

Conformity, Stereotypes, Americanness

Research Mentor: Dr. David March,
Department, College, Affiliation: Psychology, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: march@psy.fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor): Ms. Maria Gullesserian
Research Assistant Supervisor Email: gullesseria@psy.fsu.edu
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: Psychology
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 6, During business hours
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:
Not participating in the roundtable

Project Description

When people are presented with statistics indicating that one’s racial group is declining in relative demographic size, it triggers status threat among majority groups (e.g., White Americans in the US). For example, previous work has shown that, among White Americans, information about demographic changes shifts the prototype of a “typical American” toward Whiteness and other characteristics associated with the majority. This outcome might serve as a means to implicitly reaffirm the majority’s group status. But demographic change does not occur in a vacuum. As the demographic dominance of one group diminishes, the relative size and strength other groups necessarily increases. In other words, as the majority loses demographic power, other groups gain it. These rising minority groups are often the target of backlash from the diminishing majority, including increased anti-minority bias and in-group favoritism—a response we refer to as a backlash threat. Yet little work has examined the consequences of these demographic and power shifts from the perspective of minority groups whose relative standing is increasing.

From the minority perspective, perceiving backlash threat can produce two broad responses that function as mediators to minimize its harmful consequences: (1) assimilation or (2) norm rejection. Assimilatory responses involve adopting behaviors stereotypically associated with the majority group, thereby reducing backlash threat by minimizing perceived differences between groups. Norm rejection, in contrast, occurs when minority group members resist behaviors specifically because they are prescribed by majority group norms. This response may reduce the effects of backlash threat by affirming that membership in a shared culture does not require behavioral conformity and by emphasizing the value of minority-group culture within a multiethnic society. The emerging response may depend in part on the extent to which individuals identify with the broader culture of which they are a part (e.g., how American they feel relative to minority identification). In other words, this national identification of feeling American could help indicate the reaction that follows a backlash threat and therefore would be included as a measure in our work (e.g., via a manipulation check).

Our project thus examines how demographic status threat shapes White and Hispanic Americans’ perception of the characteristics of a “Typical American.” Specifically, we ask whether members of the majority group (White Americans) and a growing minority group (Hispanic Americans) respond differently demographic status threat. We are primarily interested in how such threat shapes the implicit mental prototype of Americanness—for example, the extent to which “American” becomes associated with characteristics such as Whiteness, trustworthiness, friendliness, and other characteristics— and how these associations shift differently across White and Hispanic participants. Secondarily, we will examine whether a narrowed or broad perception of Americanness differently manifests as assimilatory or norm-rejecting behaviors, and whether these responses depend on national identification (i.e., how much one identifies with being an American) and ethnic group membership (i.e., White or Hispanic American). This could lead to high American identification Hispanic-Americans rejecting a narrow definition of Americanness due to this characteristic holding an important role in their mental perception of themselves. On the flip side, low American identification could lead to Hispanic-Americans accepting a narrower definition if individuals feel as though they do not form part of the majority in-group and are not seeking ways to fit into the category.

Research Tasks: Stimuli generation, data collection, data cleaning, literature review, and study piloting.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Knowledge of basic image editing such as cropping and exporting (required), knowledge on use of Qualtrics (recommended; can be taught), basic statistical knowledge (recommended).