Why Barack Obama Is Black

@article{Halberstadt2011WhyBO,
  title={Why Barack Obama Is Black},
  author={Jamin B. Halberstadt and Steven J. Sherman and Jeffrey W. Sherman},
  journal={Psychological Science},
  year={2011},
  volume={22},
  pages={29 - 33}
}
We propose that hypodescent—the assignment of mixed-race individuals to a minority group—is an emergent feature of basic cognitive processes of learning and categorization. According to attention theory, minority groups are learned by attending to the features that distinguish them from previously learned majority groups. Selective attention creates a strong association between minority groups and their distinctive features, producing a tendency to see individuals who possess a mixture of… 
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66 Citations
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66 Citations

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On the ideology of hypodescent: Political conservatism predicts categorization of racially ambiguous faces as Black
Black Groups Accentuate Hypodescent by Activating Threats to the Racial Hierarchy
One reason White people categorize Black–White Biracial people as Black (called hypodescent) is to maintain the existing racial hierarchy. By creating a strict definition of who can be White, the…
Essentialism and Racial Bias Jointly Contribute to the Categorization of Multiracial Individuals
TLDR
Research on racial essentialism and negativity bias are integrated to explain why people might exhibit biases in the categorization of multiracial individuals and demonstrate how fundamental cognitive and motivational biases interact to influence the categorizations of multIRacial individuals.
A Cognitive-Ecological Explanation of Intergroup Biases
TLDR
This cognitive-ecological model assumes that groups such as minorities and out-groups are often novel to a perceiver, and it is argued that such intergroup biases may result from an interaction of basic cognitive processes and the structure of the information ecology.
A Cognitive-Ecological Explanation of Intergroup Biases.
People often hold negative attitudes toward out-groups and minority groups. We argue that such intergroup biases may result from an interaction of basic cognitive processes and the structure of the…
Minorities' perceptions of minority-white biracials: The role of identification for cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses
MINORITIES’ PERCEPTIONS OF MINORITY-WHITE BIRACIALS: THE ROLE OF IDENTIFICATION FOR COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, AND BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES by Sabrica Barnett Advisors: Professors Daryl Wout and William…
Not Quite Monoracial: Biracial Stereotypes Explored
TLDR
Evidence is provided of some universal biracial stereotypes that are applied to all biracial groups: attractive and not fitting in or belonging and no evidence that the tendency to engage in trait hypodescent varies as a function of contact.
Arguing That Black Is White: Racial Categorization of Mixed-Race Faces
TLDR
It was found that mixed-race faces were categorized as being Black more often than White by the former but White moreoften than Black by the latter group.
Implicit Attitude Generalization From Black to Black–White Biracial Group Members
We investigated whether Black–White biracial individuals are perceived as Black in the domain of evaluation. Previous research has documented that White perceivers’ negative evaluation of one Black…
Perceiving a Presidency in Black (and White): Four Years Later
When Barack Obama became the “first Black President” of the United States in 2008, researchers examined how his election impacted Americans’ views of racial progress. When he was reelected in 2012,…
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References

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