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Prototype Use in Perceptions of Prejudice in Interactions Between Whites and Latinos
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by Daniel Mills and A. Celeste Gaia - Emory and Henry College
This study examined the use of prototypes in the perception of
prejudice in interactions between White and Latino individuals. Participants
were students at a small liberal arts college. Participants read vignettes
portraying interactions where it was unclear whether the actor was
demonstrating prejudicial behavior and then supplied words to describe
the actor. Results indicated that participants were most likely to perceive
prejudice when the perpetrator was White and the victim was Latino,
confirming the hypothesis that participants would use expected prototypes
to judge the presence of prejudice in ambiguous situations. Gender and
intolerant beliefs did not play a primary role in the perception of prejudice
in ambiguous situations. Data support previous research using a prototype
model to explain how individuals perceive prejudice between Whites and
Blacks and suggest that this model can be used to explain the perception
of prejudice in interactions between Whites and Latinos.
Spring 2012 | Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research (Vol. 14, No. 1, p. 10), published by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright, 2012, Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.