Racial differences in spontaneous usage of shared humanity appeals

The current research examines racial differences in spontaneous usage of shared humanity appeals, when expressing support for a marginalized group. In three studies, we examined how Black and White participants use shared humanity arguments when writing in support of Black Americans (Study 1), Muslims (Study 2), and LGBTQ+ people (Study 3). Results show that Black participants were less likely than White participants to use shared humanity appeals for Black Americans, but this difference was not observed for Muslim and LGBTQ+ people. Fear of negative evaluation and self-deceptive enhancement as predictors of shared humanity arguments yielded inconsistent results across target groups. The findings suggest (albeit small effect sizes) that shared humanity appeals are context dependent and impacted by the marginalized target group.