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Description
Prosecutors’ use of dehumanizing language to describe defendants in their opening and closing statements can often go unchecked. This research aims to assess the effect of dehumanizing language on judgments about Black versus White defendants.Past research has demonstrated the effects of dehumanizing language on lay people's perceptions of out-groups, and how those perceptions can lead to consequential behaviors, prejudice, and even retributive violence and conflict. My first aim is to extend this research to the legal context, more specifically, to address a gap in prior research by randomly assigning participants to read the same closing statement in a murder case with
(a) no dehumanizing language, (b) animalistic dehumanizing language, or (c) mechanistic dehumanizing language to describe either (a) White defendants (Studies 1-2) or (b) Black defendants (Study 2). There has been ample investigation into subtle dehumanization and how it interacts with racial groups, but research has yet to investigate how dehumanized descriptions (both animalistic and mechanistic) of a defendant may influence implicit and explicit perceptions of a defendant and legal outcomes with the inclusion of a race manipulation. I tested the impact of dehumanizing language on participants’ impressions of the defendant, their levels of explicit dehumanization of the defendant specifically and implicit dehumanization of Black versus White targets generally, as well as their ultimate sentencing decisions. I predicted that closing statements including dehumanizing language would lead to greater dehumanization of the defendant and greater likelihood of choosing a death sentence—and that this effect would be greater for Black versus White defendants. I also conducted exploratory tests of the relative impact of animalistic versus mechanistic dehumanization. Investigation into the effects of dehumanization of racial and ethnic groups can help identify underlying psychological causes of racial bias and help to facilitate potential preventative measures in the courtroom.
In this paper, I will report the results from a preliminary study testing the impact of dehumanizing language about a White defendant. I will then report the results from a follow-up study testing the impact of dehumanizing language about a White and a Black defendant.
ContributorsBettis, Taylor (Author) / Salerno, Jessica M (Thesis advisor) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Koop, Greg (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This study examined relations between White parents’ color-blind and implicit racial attitudes and their children’s racial bias as well as moderation by diversity in children’s friends and caregivers, parental warmth, child age, and child sex. The sample included 190 White/Non-Hispanic children (46% female) between the ages of 5 and 9 years (M = 7.11 years, SD = .94) and their mothers (N = 184) and fathers (N = 154). Data used were parents’ reports of color-blind racial attitudes (Color-blind Racial Attitudes Scale; CoBRAS), parental warmth, and racial/ethnic diversity of children’s friendships and caregivers, direct assessment of primary parent implicit racial attitudes (Implicit Association Test; IAT), and direct assessment of children’s racial attitudes. Results supported hypothesized relations between parent racial attitudes and some child racial bias variables, especially under certain conditions. Specifically, both mothers’ and fathers’ color-blind racial attitudes were positively related to children’s social inclusion preference for White children over Black children and parents’ implicit White preference positively predicted child social inclusion racial bias, but only for younger children. Fathers’ color-blind racial attitudes positively predicted children’s social inclusion racial bias only when children’s pre-K caregivers were mostly White and were inversely related to children’s implicit White preference when children’s caregivers were more racially heterogeneous. Finally, parental warmth moderated relations such that, when mothers’ warmth was low, mother color-blind attitudes were negatively related to children’s racial bias in social distance preference and fathers’ color-blind attitudes positively predicted children’s social inclusion bias only when father warmth was low or average.
ContributorsGal-Szabo, Diana Elena (Author) / Spinrad, Tracy L (Thesis advisor) / Eisenberg, Nancy (Committee member) / Spanierman, Lisa B (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020