Those who differentiate by skin tones are at the top: status attributions and skin pigmentation in Chile
| Autor: | Fernanda Torres, Mauricio Salgado, Bernardo Mackenna, Javier Núñez |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Psychology|School Psychology bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Psychology SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Race Gender and Class SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Psychology|School Psychology bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Psychology bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Inequality and Stratification |
| Popis: | A growing body of research has shown that skin pigmentation plays a fundamental role in stratification dynamics in Latin American countries. However, the relevance of skin color on status attribution for different status groups has been poorly studied in the region. This article seeks to broaden the research on phenotypic status cues using Chile as a context for analysis – a Latin American country with a narrow although continuous spectrum of skin tones, marked status differences, and a mostly white elite. We draw on status construction theory to hypothesize that skin pigmentation in Chile has become a status cue, although its heuristic relevance could differ across status groups. Using visual stimuli and a repeated measure design, we studied this relationship and tested whether the use of skin pigmentation as a status cue is conditional upon the status of those categorizing others. The results reveal that, although skin pigmentation has a negligible direct effect on status attribution, it does have a conditional effect on the social status of the rater: whereas skin pigmentation does not work as a status cue for lower status participants, it is an important status marker for the categorizations that high-status participants perform. The phenotypic composition of reference groups of low and high-status individuals and system justification are discussed as potential explanations for these results. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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