The impact of stereotypical infomation and self-categorization on racial categorization in Brazil

Most studies on racial discrimination and bias examine whether members of racial minorities are, under the same circumstances, perceived or treated in a more negative way than members of the majority. Here, however, the dependent and independent variables awe reversed in order to analyze whether associating a person with the negative stereotypical traits of a racial minority leads to a higher probability of categorizing that person as belonging to the minority. In addition, we aimed at analyzing if this pattern was observed primarily when members were categorized as belonging to a discriminated outgroup. The results showed that the probability of categorizing a person as belonging to a racial group did not depend on the stereotypical information, but on the self-categorization of the perceiver. This was the case for both members of the minority and of the majority. The implications of the present findings for racial self- versus hetero-attribution are discussed.