Effects of Priming Discriminated Experiences on Emotion Recognition and Implicit Bicultural Identity

Racial discrimination in the post-civil rights era is no longer overt, but rather, subtle and covert. Due to its subtlety, when people of color interact with majority group members and are reminded that they may be discriminated against, they may shift their attention to social cues, such as facial expressions, to check for signs of discrimination. In addition, discriminated experiences may negatively impact their sense of identity as Americans, particularly for Asian Americans, who are perceived as perpetual foreigners. The current study explored the priming effects of racial discrimination on emotion recognition accuracy, as well as implicit American and ethnic identity of Asian Americans. One hundred fifteen Asian Americans were randomly assigned to write about experiences of racial discrimination or the shoes on their feet and take implicit and explicit measures of cultural identity. It was hypothesized that participants primed to be reminded of past experiences of racial discrimination would: (1) be more accurate in recognizing negative emotional expressions of White encoders than the control group; and (2) show a weakened implicit identification with their American culture but not on their explicit identification with American culture. The results showed that participants in the discrimination condition were more accurate in recognizing emotions of White encoders than the participants in the shoes condition. Furthermore, participants' implicit identification with American culture was significantly weakened in the discrimination condition but their explicit identification did not change. These results suggest that Asian Americans display a heightened sensitivity to facial cues of White encoders when they anticipate potential discrimination. When they are faced with experiences of discrimination, they may also experience incongruent implicit and explicit self-identity. Significance of the current findings was discussed in terms of their implications on the mental health of people of color.