Looking White doesn't necessarily mean feeling White for multiracial people
Wilson Merrell receives best paper award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues for his research on discrimination. His research shows that people with a multi-ethnic white/Asian background are more supportive of Asians than whites. However, in some cases monoracial Asians mistakenly believe the opposite.
"Our team was really excited to receive this award from SPSSI!” says Postdoc of Political Science Wilson Merrell from Aarhus BSS about receiving the Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award from Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).
“This work centers the perspectives of a rapidly growing demographic group in the United States, multiracial Americans, and specifically focuses on their relationships with their minoritized, as opposed to dominant, parent group. We believe that these types of intraminority intergroup relations undergird many political and social issues in the United States and are excited to continue working in this space," Wilson Merrell continues.
In the award-winning paper, ”Looking White but Feeling Asian” , Wilson Merrell and his co-authors examine to which extent multiracial people stand in solidarity with their parent groups.
The researchers demonstrate that Asian-White multiracial people stand in solidarity more strongly with Asian people than White people, especially when they perceive high levels of anti-Asian discrimination, and even when they believe they physically look White.
Additionally, the researchers show that Asian monoracial people incorrectly believe that physically White-looking Asian-White multiracial people stand in solidarity more strongly with White people, and these pessimistic meta-perceptions are associated with more rejection of multiracial people.
The researchers suggest that the study provides preliminary evidence that correcting these solidarity meta-perceptions can improve intergroup attitudes.
Further info
Wilson Merrell receives the Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award for his paper "Looking White but Feeling Asian: The Role of Perceived Physical Permeability and Perceived Discrimination in Multiracial-Monoracial Alliances".
The paper is co-authored with Nadia Vossoughi (Grinnell College), Nour Kteily (Northwestern University) and Arnold Ho (University of Michigan).
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) is responsible for the award.
Wilson Merrell is postdoc at CEPDISC – Centre for the Experimental-Philosophical Study of Discrimination at the Department of Political Science at Aarhus BSS at Aarhus University.