The effect of context on responses to racially ambiguous faces: Changes in perception and evaluation

Abstract

Reactions to individuals who possess features associated with multiple racial groups may be particularly susceptible to external contextual influences, leading to meaningfully different racial perceptions and judgments in different situations. In the present study, we found that an extrinsic race-label cue not only changed evaluative associations activated by a racially ambiguous face, but also changed quickly occurring neural responses sensitive to racial perception. Behaviorally, prototypical Black faces and racially ambiguous faces labeled as Black activated more negative implicit associations than prototypical White faces and racially ambiguous faces labeled as White. Neurally, prototypical faces and racially ambiguous faces cued with the same race elicited similar responses. Specifically, prototypical Black and racially ambiguous faces labeled as Black elicited larger P200s but smaller N200s than prototypical White and racially ambiguous faces labeled as White. These results show that racial perception can be changed by an external cue and this, in turn, influences subsequent evaluative reactions.