Testing the “Black Code”: does having white close friends elicit identity denial and decreased empathy from black ingroup members?

Johnson, James D. and Ashburn-Nardo, L. (2014) Testing the “Black Code”: does having white close friends elicit identity denial and decreased empathy from black ingroup members? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5 . pp. 369-376. ISSN 1948-5506

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Abstract

The present experiment examined identity denial and reduced empathy for ingroup (vs. outgroup) targets as a function of the racial composition of their social networks. Black participants rated ingroup (Black) targets as more weakly racially identified and expressed less empathy for ingroup targets with cross-race close friends vs. same-race close friends or no friends. Furthermore, the effect of social network composition on empathy was mediated by perceived racial identity. These findings were limited to the ingroup target. Although the outgroup (White) target was rated as more weakly identified when shown with cross-race close friends vs. same-race close friends or no friends, neither social network composition nor perceived racial identity predicted empathy for the outgroup target. These findings extend previous research on identity denial and suggest that, for Blacks, closely associating with Whites undermines the usually robust pattern of ingroup empathy.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Fulori Nainoca - Waqairagata
Date Deposited:	24 Feb 2015 02:39
Last Modified:	09 May 2016 00:59
URI:	http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/7943

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