Black people are convicted more for being black than for being poor: The role of social norms and cultural prejudice on biased racial judgments

PLoS One. 2019 Sep 20;14(9):e0222874. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222874. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Black and poor people are more frequently convicted of committing crimes. However, the specific role played by skin color and social class in convicting a person has yet to be clarified. This article aims to elucidate this issue by proposing that belonging to a lower social class facilitates the conviction of black targets and that this phenomenon is because information about social class dissimulates racial bias. Study 1 (N = 160) demonstrated that information about belonging to the lower classes increases agreement with a criminal suspect being sentenced to prison only when described as being black. Furthermore, Studies 2 (N = 170) and 3 (N = 174) show that the anti-prejudice norm inhibits discrimination against the black target when participants were asked to express individual racial prejudice, but not when they expressed cultural racial prejudice. Finally, Study 4 (N = 134) demonstrated that lower-class black targets were discriminated against to a greater degree when participants expressed either individual or cultural prejudice and showed that this occurs when racial and class anti-prejudice norms are salient. The results suggest that social class negatively affects judgments of black targets because judgment based on lower class mitigates the racist motivation of discrimination.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Black or African American / psychology*
  • Black or African American / statistics & numerical data
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Judgment
  • Male
  • Poverty / ethnology
  • Poverty / psychology*
  • Poverty / statistics & numerical data
  • Prejudice / psychology*
  • Prejudice / statistics & numerical data
  • Racism / ethnology
  • Racism / psychology*
  • Social Class
  • Social Norms*
  • White People / psychology*
  • White People / statistics & numerical data
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research had the financial support of CAPES granted to the first author (grant number: 5420/13-0).