RUI: Methodological and theoretical advances in the perception of multiracial individuals

在过去的五十年里，美国被认定为多种族的人数呈指数级增长。2000年，美国人口普查开始允许个人表明一个以上的种族。仅从2000年到2010年，这类答复就增加了32%，达到900万。然而，研究表明，美国多种族人口的增长速度远远快于公众对多种族个体的感知能力。例如，一个同时被认为是非洲裔美国人和高加索人的人往往会被其他人视为非洲裔美国人。一种解释是，人们还没有把多种族主义的概念加入到编织在美国社会结构中的单一种族类别中。美国人口中迅速增长的一大部分人的真实的和假定的种族身份之间的脱节带来了研究人员有据可查的不利影响。这个项目研究人类思维如何处理和种族分类的面孔多种族的人。它还研究了经验如何塑造将人们视为多种族的能力。更好地理解认知和社会对多种族个体感知的影响有助于减少刻板印象，有助于更积极的身份形成，并促进更和谐的人际关系。本项目首先寻求建立一套使用多种族面孔的实验“最佳实践”。其中一组实验考察了人们如何判断真实的面孔和计算机生成的多种族面孔的差异。这些研究还考虑了多种族面孔的分类如何受到所呈现的种族选项的影响。统计建模技术用于确定一张脸的精确特征，这些特征会导致其他人将其视为多种族，并创建一组可供其他研究人员使用的多种族面孔。该项目的第二个目标是确定多种族面孔是否构成感知者头脑中的一个独特类别，或者它们是否与占主导地位的单一种族类别的成员在感知上相似。第三个目的是测试某些个人属性或生活经历是否与在他人身上感知多种族主义的可能性更高有关。作为一个西班牙裔服务和亚裔美国人和土著美国人的太平洋岛民服务机构，加州州立大学，北岭提供了一个极好的机会，将这个研究项目纳入本科生和硕士生的培训。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Over the past five decades, the number of individuals in the U.S. identifying as multiracial has increased exponentially. In 2000, the U.S. Census began allowing individuals to indicate more than one race. From 2000 to 2010 alone, such responses increased by 32%, to 9 million. Yet, research suggests that the American multiracial population has grown much faster than the public's ability to perceive individuals as multiracial. For example, a person identifying as both African American and Caucasian will tend to be seen by others as African American only. One explanation is that people have not yet added a concept of multiracialism to the monoracial categories that are woven into the American social fabric. This disconnect between the real and assumed racial identity of a large and rapidly growing segment of the American population carries adverse impacts that have been well-documented by researchers. This project investigates how human minds process and racially categorize the faces of multiracial individuals. It also examines how experiences shape the capacity to view people as multiracial. A better understanding of the cognitive and social influences on the perception of multiracial individuals can be used to help reduce stereotyping, contribute to a more positive identity formation, and foster more harmonious interpersonal relationships.This project first seeks to establish a set of "best practices" for experimentation using multiracial faces. One set of experiments examines differences in how people judge real versus computer-generated multiracial faces. These studies also consider how the categorization of multiracial faces is affected by the range of presented race options. Statistical modeling techniques are used to determine the precise features of a face that lead others to perceive it as multiracial and to create a set of multiracial faces that can be used by other researchers. The second aim of the project is to determine whether multiracial faces constitute a unique category in the minds of perceivers, or if they are perceptually similar to members of a dominant monoracial category. The third aim is to test whether certain personal attributes or life experiences are associated with a higher likelihood of perceiving multiracialism in others. As a Hispanic-Serving and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution, California State University, Northridge offers an excellent opportunity to integrate this research project in the training of undergraduate and Master's students.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.