Celebrating Black-Led Research in Psychology

This article summarizes research and ideas from the Black-led Research episode of our podcast, Talk Psych to Me.

As psychologist Robert V. Guthrie made clear in his book, Even the Rat Was White: A Historical View of Psychology, Black psychologists in the United States have faced countless challenges in their pursuit of research (1976). Many of the most influential Black researchers are still missing from psychology textbooks today. And yet, their painstaking work has had a massive impact on our understanding of the Black experience and on the field of psychology as a whole.

So, in honor of Black History Month, here’s a brief overview of some of the most influential research led by Black psychologists. This list is by no means comprehensive but hopefully serves as a catalyst for even further exploration and celebration.

The Doll Studies

Among the most famous and influential Black psychologists were the research couple Mamie and Kenneth Clark, who are best known for their 1947 “Doll Study.”

The Clarks showed Black kids, ages three through seven, light-skinned and dark-skinned dolls that were otherwise identical. Next, they gave them a series of prompts, such as:

Give me the doll that is a nice doll.

Give me the doll that looks bad.

Give me the doll that looks like you.

They found that, even at this early age, young Black kids internalized associations of whiteness with being “good” and Blackness with being “bad.” Several kids even broke down in tears when asked to point out the doll that looked most like them.

Not only did this study shed a light on the extent to which people with marginalized identities are impacted by social stereotypes, it even played a role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision to end racial segregation in schools. The Clarks hoped that an end to school segregation would be the beginning of positive views (and especially self-views) of Black people and culture.

More than 60 years later, the changes appear to be positive but painfully slow.

For example, in 2017, researchers Diane Byrd and team found that Black kids preferred darker-skinned dolls and said they were the nicer ones and the prettier ones. But, they also thought the dark-skinned dolls looked like the “mean” dolls.

Even more recently, researchers Toni Sturdivant and Iliana Alanis observed Black girls playing with dolls of different skin tones and hair types and found that the girls played least with the Black dolls and made the most negative comments about them (2021).

These studies are important reminders that we absorb social stereotypes from a very early age. Positive and varied representation of different identities in movies, stories, news reports, and role models not only shape how we see others—they can even go so far as to shape how we see ourselves.

Stereotype Threat

Despite the end of overtly mandated racial segregation in the United States, multiple researchers have shown that integration is a long and painful road.

Psychologist Inez Prosser (the first Black woman to get her Ph.D. in psychology), found that Black kids who went to integrated schools experienced more social anxiety, felt less secure, and had more difficulties learning. In fact, she saw that Black students did best when they were around Black teachers and classmates. And even though the Clarks argued for integration, their 1947 study also found that kids from integrated schools internalized more anti-Black attitudes.

While overt racist harassment and abuse are less openly tolerated now than in the integration period of the 1940s to 1980s, being a minority today still comes with a high stress and performance tax. Just the expectation of being slotted into a negative stereotype increases stress levels, causes social withdrawal, hurts performance, and can even cause physical illness over time. Psychologist Claude Steele has dubbed this psychological response “stereotype threat” (1995).

For example, Steele and others have found that when Black kids are reminded of their race, they do worse on standardized tests. When girls are reminded of their gender, they do worse on math tests.

Steele has discovered that stereotype threat is a major contributor to race-related performance gaps in schools. As he points out, Black kids aren’t just taking tests or answering questions in class; they’re also multitasking by anticipating and fighting off other people’s perceptions.

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Stereotype threat is most damaging for people who are part of a marginalized group, but it’s also a force affecting anyone who anticipates being judged on the basis of their identity. It even explains why many non-Black people stay away from talking about race or even avoid conversations with Black people because they’re afraid of being perceived as racist. Stereotype threat makes their stress levels rise, and they cope by withdrawing from the situation. This is a tragic cycle because it perpetuates stereotypes and keeps White people from doing meaningful anti-racist work.

So, what are the antidotes to stereotype threat?

When it comes to alleviating the burden of stereotype threat for yourself, Steele suggests using affirmations such as, “I know I have the capacity to do this.” He also speaks to the importance of thinking of role models or remembering an aspect of your identity that’s rich with positive associations (a psychological trick known as “stereotype lift”). Psychologist Beverly Daniels Tatum also speaks to the importance of having communities of people who share your identity to give you a greater sense of safety, connection, and self-affirmation (1999).

We can also do more to reduce the impact of stereotype threat on others. For example, we can tell others that we expect them to succeed and will help them when things get tough. We can share our belief in the power and beauty of diversity. And we can do our best to invite and celebrate different identities and perspectives so people can feel like complex and unique individuals rather than simplistic representatives of their identity.

Implicit Bias

Implicit bias refers to a preference that lives outside our conscious awareness. Unlike our prejudices, our unconscious biases are often invisible to us. They show up as expectations of what is “normal” or as automatic reactions in our bodies—like tightening up around some people and feeling more at ease around others.

Though the term was coined recently by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald, a great deal of research has been done on this concept, dating back to Francis Sumner, who was the first Black man to get his Ph.D. in psychology (in 1920).

Psychologist Robert Lee Williams II realized that the perceived gap in intelligence between Black and white people as measured by IQ tests was likely a result of the test makers’ biases (1972). When he developed a version of the IQ test using language and personal experiences more common in Black culture, performance differences disappeared.

Mamie Clark (of the Doll Study) found that Black children were more likely to be misdiagnosed with learning disabilities thanks to White assumptions around normal communication and behavior. More recently, psychologist Hope Landrine found that race, gender, and class biases led to incorrect psychiatric diagnoses (1987). And psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt has found that unconscious bias likely leads to more police violence and harsher criminal sentencing for Black people (2019).

In the past few years, a great deal of work has gone into teaching people about their unconscious biases through interventions such as the Harvard Implicit Association Test (IAT). While awareness is important, awareness alone appears to do little to change our actual actions and reactions.

So, how can we bust our biases? Instead of trying to stop having a negative association with a certain identity (such as race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or faith), the far more effective approach is to develop more positive and nuanced associations with identities we have little exposure to. The more we immerse ourselves in movies, books, podcasts, and even just conversations with people who have different identities, the less our brains will simplify based on visible markers of identity and the more we’ll focus on the actual person before us.

But while rewiring our biases is a worthwhile pursuit, it is also worth assuming that our biases will never fully vanish—especially given that bias developed as an evolutionary survival mechanism. All people are ultimately biased. With this in mind, an important practice to adopt is to build systems that are as bias-proof as possible. For example, this might look like removing candidates’ names from job or school applications or ensuring no important decisions are made by just one person. The more bias-resistant our systems are, the more diversity we’ll have around us, and the fewer harsh biases our brains will hold onto.

Black psychologists have been instrumental in shaping our understanding of the human experience and sparking conversations about equity and inclusion we’re having all across the world. Their research and findings represent an important aspect of Black history. And, just as critically, they also shine a light on how we can construct our collective future.

Bonus Reading:

• Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele
• Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly D. Tatum (see the latest edition)
• Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
• Even the Rat Was White: A Historical View of Psychology by Robert V. Guthrie
• My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem