Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 23, 2025
07:34
Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
Published on: June 3, 2013
17.4K
Identification in Interaction: Racial Mirroring between Interviewers and Respondents
Robert E M Pickett1, Aliya Saperstein2, Andrew M Penner3
1New York University, New York, NY, USA.
Social Forces; a Scientific Medium of Social Study and Interpretation
|July 17, 2023
Summary
Survey interviewers subconsciously align their racial identity with respondents, indicating situational identity shifts. This finding impacts understanding race-of-interviewer effects and social homophily.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Sociology
- Survey Methodology
Background:
- Individuals adapt their identities based on social context.
- Subconscious mirroring of others is a documented social phenomenon.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate situational identity shifts among survey interviewers.
- To determine if interviewers' racial identification aligns with respondents' race.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of repeated measures of racial identification from 2004-2018 General Social Survey data.
- Examination of interviewer self-identification changes over time.
- Statistical analysis to control for measurement error.
Main Results:
- Interviewer racial identification varied significantly over time.
- Changes in interviewer identification were not fully explained by measurement error.
- Interviewers were more likely to report racial identities that matched respondents' race.
Conclusions:
- Subconscious affiliative identification influences interviewer behavior.
- Findings have implications for race-of-interviewer effects and the social construction of homophily.
- Re-evaluation of causality in studies of race and inequality is suggested.
Related Concept Videos
02:16Surveys
14.8K
Often, psychologists develop surveys as a means of gathering data. Surveys are lists of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally. Generally, the survey itself can be completed in a short time, and the ease of administering a survey makes it easy to collect data from a large number of people.
14.8K
01:31Confirmation Biases
5.5K
The confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms our existing beliefs and ignore information that is inconsistent with our expectations. For example, if you think that your professor is not very nice, you notice all of the instances of rude behavior exhibited by the professor while ignoring the countless pleasant interactions he is involved in on a daily basis. Have you ever fallen prey to the confirmation bias, either as the source or target of such bias?
5.5K
02:09Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies
37.7K
When we hold a stereotype about a person, we have expectations that he or she will fulfill that stereotype. A self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true. When we hold stereotypes about a person, we tend to treat the person according to our expectations. This treatment can influence the person to act according to our stereotypic expectations, thus confirming our stereotypic beliefs. Research by Rosenthal and...
37.7K
02:55Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
90.3K
Humans are very diverse and although we share many similarities, we also have many differences. The social groups we belong to help form our identities (Tajfel, 1974). These differences may be difficult for some people to reconcile, which may lead to prejudice toward people who are different. Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). Prejudice is common against people who...
90.3K
01:13Nonconscious Mimicry
4.6K
Nonconscious mimicry occurs when individuals alter their mannerisms to match the behaviors and expressions of those nearby, without intention.
4.6K
01:14Fundamental Attribution Error
12.9K
According to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations—or attributions—for the behavior of other people. They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state. This erroneous assumption is...
12.9K