Shades of Black: An Exploration of the Racial Phenotypicality Bias in Education-Related Judgments

Abstract

Research has shown that Blacks who are low in phenotypic stereotypicality are given preferential treatment compared to Blacks who are high in phenotypic stereotypicality. The present study investigated the effects of this racial phenotypicality bias in an educational context. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions in which they were asked to make judgments about an essay and the student author, varied by condition: Male Low Stereotypicality (MLS), Male High Stereotypicality (MHS), Female Low Stereotypicality (FLS), and Female High Stereotypicality (FHS). This study extrapolated the findings from the participants’ responses to teacher-student judgments for various education-related measures. The implications for stereotypicality research, gender research, and proposals for future research are discussed.