Successful black people are remembered as having a lighter skin tone than they actually have, according to a new study.
Researchers from San Francisco found that racial prejudices and stereotypes may cause people to assume an educated black person goes against the norm, and this makes them an ‘exception to their race’.
People therefore assume the person is ‘whiter’ than they are in In order to protect the ingrained stereotypical belief – a phenomenon known as ‘skin tone memory bias.’
Successful black and mixed-race people, such as Barack and Michelle Obama pictured, are remembered as having a paler skin. Researchers found that stereotypes may cause people to assume an educated black person goes against the norm, and this makes them an ‘exception to their race’
Dr Ben-Zeev and colleagues from San Francisco State University conducted a two-part experiment with a total of 160 university students.
In the first experiment, participants were subliminally exposed to either the word ‘ignorant’ or the word ‘educated’.
This was followed immediately by a photograph of a black man’s face.
The same participants were later shown seven photos that depicted the same black man’s face.
The original image was shown in the centre alongside three images shown with varying levels of darker skin, and three with lighter tones.
Participants were then asked to determine which image was identical to the one they had originally seen at the end of the first experiment.
Researchers claim that skin tone memory bias highlights how people protect a ‘darker is negative’ stereotype when looking at successful black people such as Kanye West, pictured
Those who had been subliminally shown the word ‘educated’ made significantly more memory errors.
In the majority of these cases the participant incorrectly selected a lighter image, with some participants identifying the lightest photo as the original.
There were fewer errors among participants who had been subliminally shown the word ‘ignorant.’
This experiment was repeated with a separate set of participants, yet researchers noted the same racial bias.
Lead researcher Dr Avi Ben-Zeev said: “When a black stereotypic expectancy is violated – herein, encountering an educated black male, this culturally incompatible information is resolved by distorting this person’s skin tone to be lighter in memory and therefore to be perceived as ‘whiter’.
‘Uncovering a skin tone memory bias, such that an educated black man becomes lighter in the mind’s eye, has grave implications.’
Dr Ben-Zeev continued that a skin tone memory bias highlights how memory protects a ‘darker is more negative’ belief.
He believes that the participants unconsciously distorted the black individuals’ skin tone to appear lighter to fit with these perceptions.
The findings were published in the journal Sage One.