Project Abstract/Summary
Decades of research and theory development in Social Psychology has focused on the causes and consequences of racism, with most of this research focusing on Black-White relations. However, little attention has been devoted to understanding minority groups’ attitudes toward other minority groups. This issue is important to understand because social equality and progress depends on solidarity between minority groups, and research that limits itself to only Black-White relations limits the understanding of attitudes and behavior toward minority groups. This project focuses on the role of framing in intergroup bias. Indeed, how people view members of other groups is a fundamental aspect of human social cognition, and how much racial minority groups support each other is expected to depend on how racism is framed. Advancing this understanding informs policies and strategies that bring all groups together in the fight against discrimination.
This project builds on the observation that racism directed by White Americans toward Black Americans can be framed in two distinct ways: as anti-Black or as pro-White. This difference in framing is expected to influence another minority group’s sense of solidarity or allyship with Black Americans. Specifically, this research focuses on Asian American allyship with Black Americans. It is hypothesized that framing racism against Black Americans as the result of anti-Black rather than pro-White attitudes will increase Asian Americans’ intraminority solidarity with Black Americans. One set of studies examines whether Asian Americans and White Americans think about these framings as different from each other or different from other framings of intergroup bias. Additional experiments examine whether an anti-Black framing leads Asian Americans to experience a greater sense of responsibility for racism and results in stronger solidarity with Black Americans. A final experiment explores the effect of framing on Asian Americans support for intergroup causes. Understanding how different framings for intergroup conflict affect allyship from members of other minority groups is important for building a more comprehensive understanding of intergroup relations.
This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Principal Investigator
Sapna Cheryan – University of Washington located in SEATTLE, WA
Co-Principal Investigators
Funders
Funding Amount
$618,465.00
Project Start Date
10/01/2023
Project End Date
09/30/2026
Will the project remain active for the next two years?
The project has more than two years remaining
Source: National Science Foundation
Please be advised that recent changes in federal funding schemes may have impacted the project’s scope and status.
Updated: April, 2025