Racial bias in perceptions of children's pain.

Across eight experiments, we investigated whether adult perceivers (both lay perceivers and elementary school teachers) evaluate children's pain differently depending on the child's race. We found evidence that adults varying in racial and ethnic identities (but primarily White) believed 4- to 6-year-old Black children felt less pain than 4- to 6-year-old White children (Experiments 1-7), and this effect was not moderated by child sex (Experiments 6-7). We also examined perceptions of life hardship as a mediator of this race-to-pain effect, finding that adults evaluated Black children as having lived harder lives and thus as feeling less pain than White children (Experiments 1-3). Finally, we examined downstream consequences for hypothetical treatment recommendations among samples of both lay perceivers and elementary school teachers. We found that adults' perceptions of pain sensitivity were linked with hypothetical pain treatment decisions (Experiments 5a-7). Thus, we consistently observed that adults' race-based pain stereotypes biased evaluations of 4- to 6-year-old children's pain and may influence pain care. This racial bias in evaluations of young children's pain has implications for psychological theory and equitable treatment of children's pain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Women exaggerate, men downplay: Gendered endorsement of emotional dramatization stereotypes contributes to gender bias in pain expectations.

The current work tested whether perceivers believe that women, relative to men, are likely to exaggerate versus downplay pain, an effect we refer to as the gender-pain exaggeration bias. The gender-pain exaggeration bias was operationalized as the extent to which perceivers believe women, relative to men, claim more pain than they feel. Across four experiments, we found that women were expected to exaggerate pain more than men and men were expected to downplay pain more than women (Studies 1-4). Further, judgments that women were more emotionally dramatizing than men contributed to this gender-pain exaggeration bias (Studies 2 and 4). We also assessed whether perceiver-level differences in endorsement of gendered emotional dramatization stereotypes (Studies 3-4) moderated this gender-pain exaggeration bias and found that endorsement of gendered emotional dramatization stereotypes moderated this bias. In sum, we document a relative gender-pain exaggeration bias wherein perceivers believe women, relative to men, to be emotionally dramatizing and therefore more likely to exaggerate versus downplay their pain. This bias may lead perceivers to interpret women's, relative to men's, pain reports as overstatements, inauthentic, or dramatized. Thus, the current work may have implications for well-documented biases in perceptions of (i.e., underestimating) and responses to (i.e., undertreating) women's pain.

Denver pain authenticity stimulus set (D-PASS).

We introduce the Denver Pain Authenticity Stimulus Set (D-PASS), a free resource containing 315 videos of 105 unique individuals expressing authentic and posed pain. All expressers were recorded displaying one authentic (105; pain was elicited via a pressure algometer) and two posed (210) expressions of pain (one posed expression recorded before [posed-unrehearsed] and one recorded after [posed-rehearsed] the authentic pain expression). In addition to authentic and posed pain videos, the database includes an accompanying codebook including metrics assessed at the expresser and video levels (e.g., Facial Action Coding System metrics for each video controlling for neutral images of the expresser), expressers' pain threshold and pain tolerance values, averaged pain detection performance by naïve perceivers who viewed the videos (e.g., accuracy, response bias), neutral images of each expresser, and face characteristic rating data for neutral images of each expresser (e.g., attractiveness, trustworthiness). The stimuli and accompanying codebook can be accessed for academic research purposes from https://digitalcommons.du.edu/lsdl_dpass/1/ . The relatively large number of stimuli allow for consideration of expresser-level variability in analyses and enable more advanced statistical approaches (e.g., signal detection analyses). Furthermore, the large number of Black (n = 41) and White (n = 56) expressers permits investigations into the role of race in pain expression, perception, and authenticity detection. Finally, the accompanying codebook may provide pilot data for novel investigations in the intergroup or pain sciences.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio Predicts Sexual Perception and Responses to Sexual Assault Disclosures.

The current work investigates the effects of target of perception's waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) on perceivers' judgments of sexual unrestrictedness and sexual victimization prototypicality. Studies 1a and 1b found that women with lower WHRs were perceived as relatively more sexually unrestricted. Studies 2a and 2b found that women with lower WHRs were perceived as relatively more prototypic of sexual victimization. Study 3 built on these findings to consider implications for responses to sexual assault disclosures. Perceivers disbelieved and minimized a disclosure of assault relatively more when made by a woman with a higher WHR. In sum, this body of work implicates WHR as a body cue that can inform consequential sexual perception. Thereby, this work identifies factors that could influence judgments of credibility of sexual violence reports, which may have implications for hesitancy to report sexual violence.

In the Face of Opportunities: Facial Structures of Scientists Shape Expectations of STEM Environments.

Impressions of role leaders provide information about anticipated opportunities in a role, and these perceptions can influence attitudes about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways. Specifically, the facial structures of role leaders influenced perceived affordances of working with that person, such as the availability of communal and agentic opportunities (e.g., mentorship; achievement). STEM faculty with trustworthy (relative to dominant) faces were seen as valuing communal goals (Studies 1-3), and in turn, perceived as affording both communal and agentic opportunities in their research groups (Studies 2-3b). These heightened goal opportunities aligned with perceptions that trustworthy-faced advisors would enact more group-supportive behaviors (Study 2). Consequently, students anticipated fairer treatment and reported greater interest in labs directed by trustworthy- than dominant-faced leaders (Studies 3a-4a), even when images were accompanied by explicit information about leaders' collaborative behavior (Study 4b). The faces of leaders can thus function as the "face" of that role and the surrounding culture.

Good Cop, Bad Cop: Race-Based Differences in Mental Representations of Police.

The current work investigates race-based biases in conceptualization of the facial appearance of police. We employ a reverse correlation procedure to demonstrate that Black Americans, relative to White Americans, conceptualize police officers' faces as more negative, less positive, and more dominant. We further find that these differential representations have implications for interactions with police. When naïve participants (of various races) viewed images of police officers generated by Black Americans (relative to those generated by White Americans), they responded with greater anticipated anxiety and reported more fight-or-flight behavioral intentions. Across four studies, findings suggest Black and White Americans conceptualize police and police-citizen interactions fundamentally differently. These findings have important theoretical (e.g., using reverse correlation to document the mental representations held by minority group members) and practical implications (e.g., identifying race-based differences in representations of police that may affect community-police relations).

Miami University deception detection database.

In the present work, we introduce the Miami University Deception Detection Database (MU3D), a free resource containing 320 videos of target individuals telling truths and lies. Eighty (20 Black female, 20 Black male, 20 White female, and 20 White male) different targets were recorded speaking honestly and dishonestly about their social relationships. Each target generated four different videos (i.e., positive truth, negative truth, positive lie, negative lie), yielding 320 videos fully crossing target race, target gender, statement valence, and statement veracity. These videos were transcribed by trained research assistants and evaluated by naïve raters. Descriptive analyses of the video characteristics (e.g., length) and subjective ratings (e.g., target attractiveness) are provided. The stimuli and an information codebook can be accessed free of charge for academic research purposes from http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/6067 . The MU3D offers scholars the ability to conduct research using standardized stimuli that can aid in building more comprehensive theories of interpersonal sensitivity, enhance replication among labs, facilitate the use of signal detection analyses, and promote consideration of race, gender, and their interactive effects in deception detection research.

The face of fear and anger: Facial width-to-height ratio biases recognition of angry and fearful expressions.

The ability to rapidly and accurately decode facial expressions is adaptive for human sociality. Although judgments of emotion are primarily determined by musculature, static face structure can also impact emotion judgments. The current work investigates how facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), a stable feature of all faces, influences perceivers' judgments of expressive displays of anger and fear (Studies 1a, 1b, & 2), and anger and happiness (Study 3). Across 4 studies, we provide evidence consistent with the hypothesis that perceivers more readily see anger on faces with high fWHR compared with those with low fWHR, which instead facilitates the recognition of fear and happiness. This bias emerges when participants are led to believe that targets displaying otherwise neutral faces are attempting to mask an emotion (Studies 1a & 1b), and is evident when faces display an emotion (Studies 2 & 3). Together, these studies suggest that target facial width-to-height ratio biases ascriptions of emotion with consequences for emotion recognition speed and accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record

Facing humanness: Facial width-to-height ratio predicts ascriptions of humanity.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 114(1) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2017-57724-002). In the article, there is a data error in the Results section of Study 1c. The fourth sentence of the fourth paragraph should read as follows: High fWHR targets (M= 74.39, SD=18.25) were rated as equivalently evolved as their low fWHR counterparts (M=79.39, SD=15.91).] The ascription of mind to others is central to social cognition. Most research on the ascription of mind has focused on motivated, top-down processes. The current work provides novel evidence that facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) serves as a bottom-up perceptual signal of humanness. Using a range of well-validated operational definitions of humanness, we provide evidence across 5 studies that target faces with relatively greater fWHR are seen as less than fully human compared with their relatively lower fWHR counterparts. We then present 2 ancillary studies exploring whether the fWHR-to-humanness link is mediated by previously established fWHR-trait links in the literature. Finally, 3 additional studies extend this fWHR-humanness link beyond measurements of humanness, demonstrating that the fWHR-humanness link has consequences for downstream social judgments including the sorts of crimes people are perceived to be guilty of and the social tasks for which they seem helpful. In short, we provide evidence for the hypothesis that individuals with relatively greater facial width-to-height ratio are routinely denied sophisticated, humanlike minds. (PsycINFO Database Record

Black and White Lies: Race-Based Biases in Deception Judgments.

In six studies ( N = 605), participants made deception judgments about videos of Black and White targets who told truths and lies about interpersonal relationships. In Studies 1a, 1b, 1c, and 2, White participants judged that Black targets were telling the truth more often than they judged that White targets were telling the truth. This truth bias was predicted by Whites' motivation to respond without prejudice. For Black participants, however, motives to respond without prejudice did not moderate responses (Study 2). In Study 3, we found similar effects with a manipulation of the targets' apparent race. Finally, in Study 4, we used eye-tracking techniques to demonstrate that Whites' truth bias for Black targets is likely the result of late-stage correction processes: Despite ultimately judging that Black targets were telling the truth more often than White targets, Whites were faster to fixate on the on-screen "lie" response box when targets were Black than when targets were White. These systematic race-based biases have important theoretical implications (e.g., for lie detection and improving intergroup communication and relations) and practical implications (e.g., for reducing racial bias in law enforcement).

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.