Skin color biases: Attractiveness and halo effects in the evaluation of African Americans

Abstract

Since the early days of slavery a bias favoring fair skin has been a significant and discriminatory distinction made by both White and Black Americans. Recent research indicates that African Americans are considered more attractive by others if they have fair skin. Clearly, skin color exerts strong effects on many aspects of African Americans' lives. Skin color may also affect the beauty and life chances of other non-African American groups since skin color affects perceptions in India, Israel, Korea, Japan, the West Indies, South Africa, Britain, and South America. But, until additional research examining this issue is conducted one cannot be certain that it is true. Hopefully, now that more work is being done examining skin color the public will be made aware of this and additional research examining the impact of skin color in the aforementioned cultures will also be conducted. © 2008 Springer-Verlag New York.