What black people value when white people confront prejudice

Previous research in psychology has focused on how confronting racial prejudice affects White people - White perpetrators and bystanders - and reduces their prejudice. We shift the focus to Black people - Black people targeted by prejudice and Black observers - and examine how Black people perceive White people's confrontations. Two hundred forty-two Black participants evaluated White participants' responses to anti-Black comments (i.e., confrontations), which were text-analyzed and content-coded to identify the characteristics that Black participants valued the most. Analyses revealed that Black participants valued confrontations that were coded as direct, targeting the action, labeling the prejudiced action as such, and connecting individual acts of prejudice to systemic racism. Notably, this style of confrontation is not what research suggests is best for White people, for reducing Whites' prejudice. Accordingly, the present work contributes to our understanding of confronting prejudice and the value of centering Black experiences and perspectives rather than White comfort and prejudice.

Social Psychological Research on Racism and the Importance of Historical Context: Implications for Policy

Psychology is the study of the mind, how it works, and how it affects behavior. In the context of intergroup relations and, specifically, the study of racism, the tight focus on mind and behavior has meant an incomplete understanding of racism and, crucially, an incomplete—and sometimes harmful—accounting of ways to redress it. Here, we put forth and summarize a long-standing but oft-neglected critique that psychology, by neglecting historical and systemic racism, offers incomplete and sometimes harmful solutions to redressing racism. We then discuss four examples of research that, by connecting psychology to history, might lead the way to better solutions. We close by joining others who have suggested that psychology must acknowledge historical and systemic racism and offering guidance for how researchers and psychology as a field might do this.

Racial bias in perceptions of disease and policy

Narratives about Africa as dark, depraved, and diseased justified the exploitation of African land and people. Today, these narratives may still have a hold on people’s fears about disease. We test this in three (pre-COVID-19) experiments ( N = 1,803). Across studies, we find that participants report greater worry about a pandemic originating in Africa (vs. elsewhere). In turn, they report greater support for travel bans and for loosening abortion restrictions. We then document these narratives in an archival study of newspaper articles of the 2015–2016 Zika pandemic ( N = 1,475). We find that articles were more negative—for example, they included more death-related words—if they mentioned Africa. Finally, we replicate the experimental results within the COVID-19 context, using a representative sample ( N = 1,200). Taken together, the studies make clear that reactions to pandemics are biased, and in a way consistent with historical narratives about race and Africa.

Women’s Safety Concerns and Academia: How Safety Concerns Can Create Opportunity Gaps

The present work documents the safety concerns of men and women in academia and how these concerns can create opportunity gaps. Across five samples including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty ( N = 1,812), women reported greater concerns about their safety than did men, and these concerns were associated with reduced work hours in libraries, offices, and/or labs afterhours. Additionally, although we were unable to manipulate safety concerns among women, in an experiment with men ( N = 117), increasing safety concerns decreased willingness to use the library afterhours. Finally, in an archival study of swipe access data ( N = 350,364 swipes), a crime event that made safety concerns salient for women was associated with a decreased likelihood that women worked in their office afterhours and a decreased likelihood that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics women worked in their labs later at night. Collectively, these data suggest that women’s safety concerns can restrict their work.

Online racial discrimination and the role of white bystanders

Black college students attending historically and predominantly White institutions are increasingly encountering online racial discrimination. This exposure may increase psychological distress and undermine academic performance. Although White bystanders may be well-positioned to challenge racist posts, limited research has examined interventions to increase White students' willingness to confront online racial discrimination. The present study used multiple methodologies to characterize the nature and frequency of online racial discrimination college students face, understand its impact on Black students, and increase challenges to online discrimination among White bystanders. Study data include content scraped from campus-related social media platforms over a 3-month period, transcripts from 8 focus groups conducted separately with Black (n = 35) and White (n = 33) college students, and data from an online experiment with 402 White college students. Taken together, study findings indicated that Black students encounter online racial discrimination with nontrivial frequency and are harmed by this exposure. Black students noted, however, that harm is mitigated when online racial discrimination is challenged by their White peers. Further, findings indicated that White students may be more likely to publicly confront racist posts if they (a) are aware of the harm it causes their Black peers; (b) perceive social norms that support confronting discrimination; and (c) receive guidance on what to say. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Race, Architecture, and Belonging: Divergent Perceptions of Antebellum Architecture

Preserving historic buildings can have many purposes, including honoring proud moments in our history as well as acknowledging and redressing shameful ones. The preservation of Antebellum buildings, buildings with an architectural style from the pre-Civil War era that often features symmetrical brick or white-washed façades and columns in a Greek revival style, has been as especially fraught issue. In the present work, we contribute to this conversation by examining the psychological costs of preserving Antebellum buildings such as restored or preserved Plantations. In two studies (Ns=166 and 165, respectively), Black participants rated Antebellum but not New American architecture more negatively than White participants. They reported liking Antebellum architecture less and feeling less welcome in it. Further, Black (but not White) participants spontaneously mentioned racism/slavery when viewing Antebellum architecture. Interestingly, this pattern was also found for modern-built Antebellum architecture. This suggests it is not Antebellum buildings per se but Antebellum architecture and the ideologies it evokes that may be problematic. Next, we examined potential moderators of this effect. In Study 3, Black participants (N=81) read about an Antebellum museum with one of two missions, one devoted to reconstructing the museum for historical accuracy, common to historical museums, and the other to addressing and informing visitors about the era’s slavery. Participants also saw pictures of either a predominantly White or Black Board of Visitors. We found that only in the addressing slavery condition with a predominantly Black board did these Black participants report liking and feeling welcome in the museum. Importantly, they felt that museum would have more influence from and be more empowering for the Black community. The present findings have implications for interventions aimed at increasing Black Americans’ engagement with and sense of ownership in public spaces associated with Antebellum architecture. They suggest that reclaiming—and not only redeeming—spaces with such histories is important.

Out of place: Socioeconomic status, use of public space, and belonging in higher education

Those from low socioeconomic status (SES) often lack access to public space and, when they have access, they are often discouraged from using public space. Scholars from human geography and related fields have argued that this limits engagement in civic life and undermines sense of belonging in one's community. In the present work, we consider whether lower-SES students face this predicament in higher education, particularly at elite public institutions. Across four studies, we find that, compared with higher-SES students, lower-SES students use public space on campus less-iconic public space in particular-and this can mediate the relationship between SES and sense of belonging at the University. We also find that experimentally increasing students' use of public space can reduce and even close SES gaps in felt belonging. Taken together, the present studies suggest that use of public space matters for belonging and for understanding gaps in belonging. This work contributes to our understanding of SES disparities in higher education. More generally, it illustrates the importance of public space. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A socioecological psychology of racism: making structures and history more visible

Psychology has been accused of 'psychologizing' racism. Here, we summarize the argument that Psychology routinely neglects structural racism and historical legacies of racism. We then discuss two cases-healthcare and police use of force-in which studying individual bias could benefit from incorporating a focus on structures and history. We close by echoing others who have advocated that Psychology move forward with a better integrated view of racism; in particular, we suggest a socioecological view that contextualizes individual bias within the relevant realities of historical and structural racism.

What Lies Beneath? Minority Group Members’ Suspicion of Whites’ Egalitarian Motivation Predicts Responses to Whites’ Smiles

Antiprejudice norms and attempts to conceal racial bias have made Whites’ positive treatment of racial minorities attributionally ambiguous. Although some minorities believe Whites’ positivity is genuine, others are suspicious of Whites’ motives and believe their kindness is primarily motivated by desires to avoid appearing prejudiced. For those suspicious of Whites’ motives, Whites’ smiles may paradoxically function as threat cues. To the extent that Whites’ smiles cue threat among suspicious minorities, we hypothesized that suspicious minorities would explicitly perceive Whites’ smiles as threatening (Study 1), automatically orient to smiling White—as opposed to smiling Black—targets (Study 2), and accurately discriminate between Whites’ real and fake smiles (Study 3). These results provide convergent evidence that cues typically associated with acceptance and affiliation ironically function as threat cues among suspicious racial minorities.

Variation in Black Anti-White Bias and Target Distancing Cues: Factors that Influence Perceptions of “Ambiguously Racist” Behavior

Experiment 1 indicated that when the White supervisor's negative treatment of a Black subordinate was unconstrained, participant race had no impact on attributions. Conversely, when the treatment was constrained, Black participants reported greater racist attributions than did White participants. Experiment 2 indicated that when the supervisor reported no response or a minimal negative response (i.e., indicating that he did not support his actions) after his negative treatment of the Black subordinate, Black participants reported greater racist attributions than did White participants. Conversely, when the supervisor's negative treatment was followed by a more extreme negative response, participant race had no impact on attributions. Experiment 3 indicated that Black participants were less likely than White participants to perceive a minimal negative response as reflecting a White supervisor's lack of support for his negative actions. Conversely, participant race had no impact on attributions of a Black supervisor's negative actions.

Assumptions about life hardship and pain perception

The present work examines whether people assume that those who have faced hardship feel less pain than those who have not, and whether this belief contributes to the perception that Blacks feel less pain than Whites. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants received information about a Black and/or White target person’s life hardship and then rated the target person’s pain. Participants reported that the target individual would feel less pain if s/he had experienced greater hardship. Importantly, racial bias emerged but only when hardship information was consistent with expectations about race and life hardship; that is, participants reported that the Black (vs. White) target individual would feel less pain only if s/he had experienced greater hardship. In Experiment 3, participants read that hardship either toughens or weakens the body, and then rated a Black or White target person’s pain. Racial bias emerged but only when supported by lay beliefs. Specifically, participants reported that the Black (vs. White) target individual would feel less pain but only if they endorsed the belief that hardship leads to toughness. Taken together, these findings suggest that perceptions of hardship shape perceptions of pain and contribute to racial bias in pain perception. These findings also suggest that eliminating this racial bias will require challenging lay beliefs; it will require the recognition that people who have faced great hardship feel just as much, if not more, pain.

A Superhumanization Bias in Whites’ Perceptions of Blacks

The present research provides the first systematic empirical investigation into superhumanization, the attribution of supernatural, extrasensory, and magical mental and physical qualities to humans. Five studies test and support the hypothesis that White Americans superhumanize Black people relative to White people. Studies 1–2b demonstrate this phenomenon at an implicit level, showing that Whites preferentially associate Blacks versus Whites with superhuman versus human words on an implicit association test and on a categorization task. Studies 3–4 demonstrate this phenomenon at an explicit level, showing that Whites preferentially attribute superhuman capacities to Blacks versus Whites, and Study 4 specifically shows that superhumanization of Blacks predicts denial of pain to Black versus White targets. Together, these studies demonstrate a novel and potentially detrimental process through which Whites perceive Blacks.

Diverse According to Whom? Racial group membership and concerns about discrimination shape diversity judgments

People often treat diversity as an objective feature of situations that everyone perceives similarly. The current research shows, however, that disagreement often exists over whether a group is diverse. We argue that diversity judgments diverge because they are social perceptions that reflect, in part, individuals' motivations and experiences, including concerns about how a group would treat them. Therefore, whether a group includes in-group members should affect how diverse a group appears because the inclusion or apparent exclusion of in-group members signals whether perceivers can expect to be accepted and treated fairly. Supporting our claims, three experiments demonstrate that racial minority group members perceive more diversity when groups included racial in-group members rather than members of other racial minority groups. Moreover, important differences exist between Asian Americans and African Americans, which underscore the need for more research to explore uniqueness rather than commonalities across racial minority groups.

Children's racial bias in perceptions of others' pain

Previous research indicates that American adults, both Black and White, assume a priori that Black people feel less pain than do White people (Trawalter, Hoffman, & Waytz, 2012, PLoS One, 7[11], 1-8). The present work investigates when in development this bias emerges. Five-, 7-, and 10-year-olds first rated the amount of pain they themselves would feel in 10 situations such as biting their tongue or hitting their head. They then rated the amount of pain they believed two other children - a Black child and a White child, matched to the child's gender - would feel in response to the same events. We found that by age 7, children show a weak racial bias and that by age 10, they show a strong and reliable racial bias. Consistent with research on adults, this bias was not moderated by race-related attitudes or interracial contact. This finding is important because knowing the age of emergence can inform the timing of interventions to prevent this bias.

The invisible man: interpersonal goals moderate inattentional blindness to African Americans

Research on inattentional blindness demonstrates that when attending to 1 set of stimuli, people often fail to consciously perceive a task-irrelevant object. In this experiment, we tested for selective inattentional blindness to racial outgroup members. We reasoned that some racial groups would be perceived as more relevant than others, depending on the interpersonal goal that was active. White participants were primed with interpersonal goals that ranged from psychologically distant (searching for a coworker) to psychologically close (searching for a romantic partner). In the control condition, no goal was explicitly activated. Then, participants watched a video of 2 teams passing a ball and were asked to count the ball passes of one of the teams. In the middle of the video, a Caucasian or an African American man walked through the scene. Participants were then asked to report whether they had seen the interloper. Results revealed that as interpersonal goals became closer to the self, participants were less likely to see the African American man. This research demonstrates a new form of social exclusion based on early attention processes that may perpetuate racial bias.

The invisible man: interpersonal goals moderate inattentional blindness to African Americans

Research on inattentional blindness demonstrates that when attending to 1 set of stimuli, people often fail to consciously perceive a task-irrelevant object. In this experiment, we tested for selective inattentional blindness to racial outgroup members. We reasoned that some racial groups would be perceived as more relevant than others, depending on the interpersonal goal that was active. White participants were primed with interpersonal goals that ranged from psychologically distant (searching for a coworker) to psychologically close (searching for a romantic partner). In the control condition, no goal was explicitly activated. Then, participants watched a video of 2 teams passing a ball and were asked to count the ball passes of one of the teams. In the middle of the video, a Caucasian or an African American man walked through the scene. Participants were then asked to report whether they had seen the interloper. Results revealed that as interpersonal goals became closer to the self, participants were less likely to see the African American man. This research demonstrates a new form of social exclusion based on early attention processes that may perpetuate racial bias.

Narrow imaginations: How imagining ideal employees can increase racial bias

When people make important decisions, such as selecting a job candidate or graduate school applicant based on how well they fit with that imagined ideal. In two experiments we provide evidence that imagining the ideal has unintended consequences. Imagining an ideal candidate for a professional job led participants to preferentially imagine a White candidate (Experiment 1) and to preferentially hire a White candidate over a Black candidate with matched qualifications (Experiment 2). These effects were independent of explicit prejudice, suggesting that even low-prejudice individuals may be affected by this bias. However, an alternative imagery strategy—imagining a variety of suitable applicants—was effective at remediating the bias. In some cases discrimination may result not from prejudiced attitudes but from failures of the imagination.

Racial bias in perceptions of others' pain

The present work provides evidence that people assume a priori that Blacks feel less pain than do Whites. It also demonstrates that this bias is rooted in perceptions of status and the privilege (or hardship) status confers, not race per se. Archival data from the National Football League injury reports reveal that, relative to injured White players, injured Black players are deemed more likely to play in a subsequent game, possibly because people assume they feel less pain. Experiments 1-4 show that White and Black Americans-including registered nurses and nursing students-assume that Black people feel less pain than do White people. Finally, Experiments 5 and 6 provide evidence that this bias is rooted in perceptions of status, not race per se. Taken together, these data have important implications for understanding race-related biases and healthcare disparities.

Concerns about Appearing Prejudiced Get Under the Skin: Stress Responses to Interracial Contact in the Moment and across Time

Many White Americans are concerned about appearing prejudiced. How these concerns affect responses during actual interracial interactions, however, remains understudied. The present work examines stress responses to interracial contact-both in the moment, during interracial interactions (Study 1), and over time as individuals have repeated interracial contact (Study 2). Results of Study 1 revealed that concerns about appearing prejudiced were associated with heightened stress responses during interracial encounters (Study 1). White participants concerned about appearing prejudiced exhibited significant increases in cortisol "stress hormone" levels as well as increases in anxious behavior during interracial but not same-race contact. Participants relatively unconcerned about appearing prejudiced did not exhibit these stress responses. Study 2 examined stress responses to interracial contact over an entire academic year. Results revealed that White participants exhibited shifts in cortisol diurnal rhythms on days after interracial contact. Moreover, participants' cortisol rhythms across the academic year, from fall to spring, were related to their concerns about appearing prejudiced and their interracial contact experiences. Taken together, these data offer the first evidence that chronic concerns about appearing prejudiced are related to short- and longer-term stress responses to interracial contact. Implications for life in diverse spaces are discussed.

Physiological stress responses to the 2008 U.S. presidential election: The role of policy preferences and social dominance orientation

This study examines physiological stress responses to the 2008 U.S. presidential election. The week before and after Election Day, participants provided three daily saliva samples, assayed for cortisol (a principal “stress hormone”) and testosterone. Results revealed that, on Election Day, all participants on average and Republicans in particular exhibited stunted cortisol and testosterone rhythms, perhaps reflecting participants’ anticipation. After Election Day, participants’ political affiliation was not a strong predictor of physiological responses. Their social dominance orientation—that is, their tolerance of social inequalities—was predictive of responses. Those higher in social dominance orientation had higher cortisol and testosterone morning values. These changes suggest that individuals higher in social dominance orientation were distressed but ready to fight back. The present findings add to an emerging body of work showing that sociopolitical differences can influence biological systems relevant to health and behavior.

Predicting Behavior During Interracial Interactions: A Stress and Coping Approach

The social psychological literature maintains unequivocally that interracial contact is stressful. Yet research and theory have rarely considered how stress may shape behavior during interracial interactions. To address this empirical and theoretical gap, the authors propose a framework for understanding and predicting behavior during interracial interactions rooted in the stress and coping literature. Specifically, they propose that individuals often appraise interracial interactions as a threat, experience stress, and therefore cope—they antagonize, avoid, freeze, or engage. In other words, the behavioral dynamics of interracial interactions can be understood as initial stress reactions and subsequent coping responses. After articulating the framework and its predictions for behavior during interracial interactions, the authors examine its ability to organize the extant literature on behavioral dynamics during interracial compared with same-race contact. They conclude with a discussion of the implications of the stress and coping framework for improving research and fostering more positive interracial contact.

Attending to Threat: Race-based Patterns of Selective Attention

The present research investigated the extent to which the stereotype that young Black men are threatening and dangerous has become so robust and ingrained in the collective American unconscious that Black men now capture attention, much like evolved threats such as spiders and snakes. Specifically, using a dot-probe detection paradigm, White participants revealed biased attention toward Black faces relative to White faces (Study 1). Because the faces were presented only briefly (30-ms), the bias is thought to reflect the early engagement of attention. The attentional bias was eliminated, however, when the faces displayed averted eye-gaze (Study 2). That is, when the threat communicated by the Black faces was attenuated by a relevant, competing socio-emotional cue- in this case, averted eye-gaze-they no longer captured perceivers' attention. Broader implications for social cognition, as well as public policies that reify these prevailing perceptions of young Black men are discussed.

Let's Talk About Race, Baby! When Whites' and Blacks' Interracial Contact Experiences Diverge

The present study investigated whether the conditions that make interracial contact anxiety-provoking for Whites differ from those that make it anxiety-provoking for Blacks. Specifically, the present work examined interracial anxiety as a function of discussant race (i.e., White or Black) and discussion topic (i.e., race-related or race-neutral). To that end, we examined the non-verbal behavior of White and Black participants during brief interpersonal interactions. Consistent with previous research, White participants behaved more anxiously during interracial than same-race interactions. Additionally, White participants of interracial interaction behaved more anxiously than their Black interaction partners. Furthermore, whereas White participants of interracial interactions found race-related discussions no more stressful than race-neutral discussions, Black participants of interracial interactions found race-related discussions less stressful than race-neutral discussions. The implications of these racial and contextual differences in interracial anxiety for improving interracial contact and race relations, more broadly, are discussed.

Eye-Gaze Direction Modulates Race-Related Amygdala Activity

Although previous research has found greater activity in the human amygdala in response to Black male compared with White male targets, the basis of this effect remains unclear. For example, is it race alone that triggers amygdala activity, or do other stimulus cues, in conjunction with racial group membership, also play a critical role in this regard? To address this issue, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure amygdala activity in response to Black and White male targets displaying different eye-gaze directions (i.e. direct or averted gaze), as gaze cues have been shown to influence the socio-emotional aspects of person construal. The results revealed that eye-gaze direction significantly moderates race-related amygdala activity. Specifically, Black targets only generated greater amygdala activity than White targets when the faces bore direct gaze. This finding is noteworthy as it demonstrates the importance of compound stimulus cues in the appraisal of social targets.

The threat of appearing prejudiced and race-based attentional biases

The current work tested whether external motivation to respond without prejudice toward Blacks is associated with biased patterns of selective attention that reflect a threat response to Black individuals. In a dot-probe attentional bias paradigm, White participants with low and high external motivation to respond without prejudice toward Blacks (i.e., low-EM and high-EM individuals, respectively) were presented with pairs of White and Black male faces that bore either neutral or happy facial expressions; on each trial, the faces were displayed for either 30 ms or 450 ms. The findings were consistent with those of previous research on threat and attention: High-EM participants revealed an attentional bias toward neutral Black faces presented for 30 ms, but an attentional bias away from neutral Black faces presented for 450 ms. These attentional biases were eliminated, however, when the faces displayed happy expressions. These findings suggest that high levels of external motivation to avoid prejudice result in anxious arousal in response to Black individuals, and that this response affects even basic attentional processes.

On the Categorization of Admired and Disliked Exemplars of Admired and Disliked Racial Groups

The present work examined the influence of affective fit in the racial categorization process. Study 1 tested whether famous exemplars of stigmatized and nonstigmatized racial groups are categorized by race at differential rates, depending on whether they are admired or disliked. Using an inverted-face paradigm, Study 2 examined whether racial categorization accuracy differs for admired and disliked exemplars of these groups. Study 3 examined the influence of collective self-esteem on Whites' tendency to differentially categorize admired and disliked Black and White exemplars. Last, Study 4 replicated the pattern of results found in the previous studies for White participants, making use of unknown exemplars about whom participants learned either positive or negative information prior to categorizing them. Taken together, the results suggested that phenotypically irrelevant affective information regarding exemplars and their social group memberships influences the racial categorization process. Implications for prejudice and stereotyping are discussed.

Why do interracial interactions impair executive function? A resource depletion account

Three studies investigated the veracity of a resource depletion account of the impairment of inhibitory task performance after interracial contact. White individuals engaged in either an interracial or same-race interaction, then completed an ostensibly unrelated Stroop color-naming test. In each study, the self-regulatory demands of the interaction were either increased (Study 1) or decreased (Studies 2 and 3). Results revealed that increasing the self-regulatory demands of an interracial interaction led to greater Stroop interference compared with control, whereas reducing self-regulatory demands led to less Stroop interference. Manipulating self-regulatory demands did not affect Stroop performance after same-race interactions. Taken together, the present studies point to resource depletion as the likely mechanism underlying the impairment of cognitive functioning after interracial dyadic interactions.

Why do interracial interactions impair executive function? A resource depletion account

Three studies investigated the veracity of a resource depletion account of the impairment of inhibitory task performance after interracial contact. White individuals engaged in either an interracial or same-race interaction, then completed an ostensibly unrelated Stroop color-naming test. In each study, the self-regulatory demands of the interaction were either increased (Study 1) or decreased (Studies 2 and 3). Results revealed that increasing the self-regulatory demands of an interracial interaction led to greater Stroop interference compared with control, whereas reducing self-regulatory demands led to less Stroop interference. Manipulating self-regulatory demands did not affect Stroop performance after same-race interactions. Taken together, the present studies point to resource depletion as the likely mechanism underlying the impairment of cognitive functioning after interracial dyadic interactions.

Ironic Effects of Racial Bias During Interracial Interactions

Previous research has suggested that Blacks like White interaction partners who make an effort to appear unbiased more than those who do not. We tested the hypothesis that, ironically, Blacks perceive White interaction partners who are more racially biased more positively than less biased White partners, primarily because the former group must make more of an effort to control racial bias than the latter. White participants in this study completed the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a measure of racial bias and then discussed race relations with either a White or a Black partner. Whites' IAT scores predicted how positively they were perceived by Black (but not White) interaction partners, and this relationship was mediated by Blacks' perceptions of how engaged the White participants were during the interaction. We discuss implications of the finding that Blacks may, ironically, prefer to interact with highly racially biased Whites, at least in short interactions.

Performance on the IOWA card task by adolescents and adults

Performance on the Iowa Card Task (ICT) is impaired in several populations that demonstrate poor decision-making and risk-taking including patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. For some individuals, adolescence is a period of poor decision-making and risk-taking. Adolescence is also a period of neuroanatomic and neurochemical remodeling. There is evidence that neuropsychological functions of the prefrontal cortex change during adolescence; however, decision-making, as measured by the ICT, has not been systematically studied in adolescents over the age of 14 years. In the present study, 60 participants (30 female) in each of grades 6-12, and 60 young adults were administered the Iowa Card Task, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST), a survey of impulsivity and excitement-seeking, and a quantity-frequency index of substance use. Results showed significant and steady improvement on the Iowa Card Task from the 6th grade to adulthood. Performance on the Iowa Card Task was not correlated with measures of impulsivity, excitement-seeking or reported individual substance use. There was one indication that poly-substance use was negatively correlated with performance on the ICT. Performance on the WCST was not significantly correlated with performance on the Iowa Card Task or any other measure. Across age, males and females had a different response pattern on the ICT. Females tended to choose cards associated with both immediate wins and with long-term outcome. Males tended to choose on the basis of long-term outcome. Results are discussed in terms of adolescent brain development and decision-making differences between males and females.

An fMRI investigation of the impact of interracial contact on executive function

We investigated whether individual differences in racial bias among white participants predict the recruitment, and potential depletion, of executive attentional resources during contact with black individuals. White individuals completed an unobtrusive measure of racial bias, then interacted with a black individual, and finally completed an ostensibly unrelated Stroop color-naming test. In a separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session, subjects were presented with unfamiliar black male faces, and the activity of brain regions thought to be critical to executive control was assessed. We found that racial bias predicted activity in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in response to black faces. Furthermore, activity in this region predicted Stroop interference after an actual interracial interaction, and it statistically mediated the relation between racial bias and Stroop interference. These results are consistent with a resource depletion account of the temporary executive dysfunction seen in racially biased individuals after interracial contact.