Messages about racial injustice can be received differently by people depending on their political ideology and the race of the person delivering the message. Liberals tend to support social or situational explanations for racial injustice while conservatives tend to support personal or individual explanations. New research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that liberal people indeed were more likely to hire a teacher when their teaching philosophy is focused on social responsibility, but only when the applicants were White. When the applicants were Black, liberal people preferred applicants who focused on personality responsibility.
“When racial injustice and social inequality are discussed, people tend to invoke one of two explanations for why racial inequalities persist; one explanation points to systemic factors that create an unequal playing field, the other explanation suggests the playing field is fair and failures to thrive within it are the fault of the individual,” study author Grace N. Rivera and colleagues wrote.
Race of the speaker can also influence how a message or argument is received. Previous research has shown that White people who confront discrimination are seen as more favorable than Black people who do the same.
To test how political ideology and race influence how social vs. personal responsibility messages are received, researchers recruited four different samples both from undergraduate participant pools (Sample 1) and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; Samples 2, 3 and 4) to participate in an experiment.
Participants viewed two online teaching profiles of either two Black or two White applicants who were both applying to the same job. Researchers chose faces from the Bainbridge 10K U.S. Face Database that were rated equally attractive, warm, and friendly. These profiles were then manipulated and randomized so that one contained a teaching philosophy with personal responsibility language and the other with social responsibility language. Participants then evaluated both teachers and indicated which applicant they would hire.
Across race conditions, participants generally preferred the personality responsibility profiles to the social responsibility ones. However, applicant race affected this pattern. Participants who saw Black applicant profiles preferred the personal responsibility messages (compared to social responsibility) and those who saw the White applicant profiles preferred both messages equally.
Political ideology also was related. “In the White applicant condition, relatively liberal participants prefer the social responsibility message to the personal responsibility message and conservative participants prefer the personal to the social. In other words, message preference seems to map clearly onto what one would expect based on ideology if the applicants are white,” wrote the researchers.
In comparison, in the Black applicant condition liberal participants did not prefer either the social or personal responsibility messages. However, conservative participants still preferred the personal responsibility message to the social one.
These patterns were also reflected in hiring decisions. Liberal participants were more likely to hire the social responsibility applicant than the personal responsibility one if the applicants were White. When the applicants were Black, on the other hand, liberals are equally willing to hire each applicant regardless of the messaging on their profile. In other words, liberals, who should be expected to resoundingly prefer the social responsibility messaging, only demonstrate this pattern for White applicants indicating the social responsibility messaging might be less palatable from the Black applicants.
For moderates and conservatives, personal responsibility applicants were hired more than social responsibility ones regardless of race. However, this pattern was somewhat stronger in the Black applicant condition.
When considering White applicants, liberal participants viewed social and personal responsibility teachers as equally likely to encourage students to take control of their academic outcomes. However, when considering Black applicants, liberal teachers view the social responsibility teacher as less likely to encourage students to take control compared to the personality responsibility teacher. In contrast, conservative participants believed social responsibility teachers are less likely to encourage students regardless of race.
In general, liberal’s hiring decisions only aligned with their ideologies when they evaluated White applicants. “This difference between overall evaluative preferences and race-based hiring decisions suggests that when candidates are Black, liberal decision-making aligns more with conservative ideology, subsequently elevating minority candidates who espouse personal responsibility rhetoric.”
One limitation of this study is the use of a single portfolio to represent each type of messaging. Future research might create multiple portfolios and vary the individual characteristics to get a more precise assessment of support for different messaging frames.
Overall, the results show a pattern. “When hiring Black teachers, liberals and conservatives agree; candidates advocating social responsibility are deemed the less desirable choice.”
The study, “When race trumps political ideology: Black teachers who advocate for social responsibility are penalized by both liberals and conservatives“, was authored by Grace N. Rivera, Phia S. Salter, Matt Friedman, Jaren Crist, and Rebecca J. Schlegel.