Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Race is an important social identity particularly for understanding communication behaviors of minorities such as Blacks. Ethnic identity is a key moderator for facilitating self categorization at the race level and ingroup favoritism. Growing prevalence of digital virtual humans offers a new venue for comparative analysis of racial processes. Study 1 (N=53) first confirmed the moderating effects of ethnic identity, demonstrating ingroup favoritism among strong ethnic-identity Blacks but not among weak ethnic-identity Blacks. Study 2 (N=64), however, found both strong and weak ethnic identifiers exhibited ingroup favoritism to virtual Black versus White entities. The difference lies in dampened responses to the virtual White entity among weak ethnic identifiers. Prototypicality and ingroup bias are suggested as explanations.