Performance on Indirect Measures of Race Evaluation Predicts Amygdala Activation

By Elizabeth A. Phelps, Kevin J O 'connor, William A. Cunningham, E. Sumie Funayama, J. Gatenby, John C. Gore, Mahzarin R. Banaji. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2000

1,082 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We used fMRI to explore the neural substrates involved in the unconscious evaluation of Black and White social groups. Specifically, we focused on the amygdala, a subcortical structure known to play a role in emotional learning and evaluation. In Experiment 1, White American subjects observed faces of unfamiliar Black and White males. The strength of amygdala activation to Black-versus-White faces was correlated with two indirect (unconscious) measures of race evaluation (Implicit Association Test [IAT] and potentiated startle), but not with the direct (conscious) expression of race attitudes. In Experiment 2, these patterns were not obtained when the stimulus faces belonged to familiar and positively regarded Black and White individuals. Together, these results suggest that amygdala and behavioral responses to Black-versus-White faces in White subjects reflect cultural evaluations of social groups modified by individual experience.

Subfields: Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6ebd559f6e73bb527ec3dd31ef0b8615f5494c8b

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Social Psychological Face Perception: Why Appearance Matters. (2008, positive): “In addition, more babyfaced young men were more likely to earn military awards, contradicting impressions of their submissiveness and physical weakness (Collins & Zebrowitz, 1995).”
Social neuroscience evidence for dehumanised perception (2009, background): “Notably, the race-amygdala effect attenuates for familiar faces (Phelps et al., 2000), repeated faces (Hart et al., 2000), and individuated faces (Wheeler & Fiske, 2005).”
Sexual Strategies: A Journey Into Controversy (2003, neutral): “When experience with outgroups is enhanced via interpersonal contact or experience with outgroup members, attitudes toward those groups become more positive provided specific conditions are met (Brewer, 1996; Herek & Capitanio, 1996; Hewstone, 2000; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2000 ).”
Contributions of the amygdala to emotion processing: from animal models to human behavior. (2005, background): “, 2004), to race group information (Phelps et al., 2000), to pictures of individuals who have previously acted unstrustworthy (Singer et al.”
Racial Bias in Bail Decisions ⇤ (2018, positive): “…2001), and of showing greater activation of the area of the brain associated with fear-driven responses to the presentation of unfamiliar black versus white faces (Phelps et al. 2000). rapid-fire determination of bail decisions, and the lack of face-to-face contact between defendants and judges.”
Crime News and Racialized Beliefs: Understanding the Relationship Between Local News Viewing and Perceptions of African Americans and Crime (2008, background): “Those concerned about the MRS often cite evidence that it is more useful for assessing explicit rather than implicit racial attitudes (Akrami et al., 2000; Fazio et al., 1995; Phelps et al., 2000).”
History of Social Psychology: Insights, Challenges, and Contributions to Theory and Application (2010, neutral): “For example, Phelps et al. (2000) found that amygdala activation, which has been implicated in fear responses, correlated with racial evaluations assessed by implicit measurement tools including the IAT.”
The Implicit Association Test as a tool for studying dysfunctional associations in psychopathology: strengths and limitations. (2002, background): “Rothermund and Wentura (2001) recently argued that IAT effects can reflect the salience of concepts rather than associations between concepts.”
Facial Similarity Between Voters and Candidates Causes Influence (2008, background): “…Nelson, 2001 for a review), even among the very young (Fagan, 1972) and facial stimuli are processed by specialized areas of the human brain (Golby, Gabrieli, Chiao, & Ebenhardt, 2001; Kanwisher & Yovel, in press; Lieberman, Hairir, Jarcho, Eisenberger, & Bookheimer, 2005; Phelps et al., 2000).”
Social cognition in humans. (2007, positive): “The amygdala response is not elicited by the faces of familiar and positively regarded black Americans [ 29 ].”
Social Justice in Our Minds, Homes, and Society: The Nature, Causes, and Consequences of Implicit Bias (2004, background): “For example, prosocial behavior toward Blacks is negatively predicted by implicit prejudice, whether prejudice is assessed by the IAT (Ashburn-Nardoet al., 2003; McConnell and Leibold, 2001; Rudman and Lee, 2002) or priming (Dovidioet al., 1997, 2002; Fazioet al., 1995).”
The Biology of Trust: Integrating Evidence From Genetics, Endocrinology, and Functional Brain Imaging (2012, background): “Other empirical studies found that this region is also activated by viewing faces that show certain emotional expressions, notably fear (Morris et al., 1996), and that it is activated when subjects view faces of people from another race (Hart et al., 2000; Phelps et al., 2000).”
TARGET ARTICLE: Attributions of Implicit Prejudice, or "Would Jesse Jackson 'Fail' the Implicit Association Test?" (2004, neutral): “Note that on explicit measures of prejudice such as the Modern Racism Scale (McConahay, 1986), those with “bad” amygdala behavior were exonerated (Phelps et al., 2000).”