In this episode, I speak to Erika Hall about her article "A rose by any other name? The consequences of subtyping “African-Americans†from “Blacks.â€Â The abstract for the article is provided below.

Abstract

"Racial labels often define how social groups are perceived. The current research utilized both archival and experimental methods to explore the consequences of the “Black†vs. “African-American†racial labels on Whites' evaluations of racial minorities. We argue that the racial label Black evokes a mental representation of a person with lower socioeconomic status than the racial label African-American, and that Whites will react more negatively toward Blacks (vs. African-Americans). In Study 1, we show that the stereotype content for Blacks (vs. African-Americans) is lower in status, positivity, competence, and warmth. In Study 2, Whites view a target as lower status when he is identified as Black vs. African-American. In Study 3, we demonstrate that the use of the label Black vs. African-American in a US Newspaper crime report article is associated with a negative emotional tone in that respective article. Finally, in Study 4, we show that Whites view a criminal suspect more negatively when he is identified as Black vs. African-American. The results establish how racial labels can have material consequences for a group."