Our racial identity affects who we see

A study published in the current issue of Psychological Science finds that a person's racial identity influences who he or she sees. The authors asked biracial participants (one Black and one White parent) to think about their Black parent's ethnicity. After, they could spot the presence or lack of a Black face in a crowd of White faces with the same speed and accuracy as a monoracial Black person. The same held true when asked to think of their White parent. Although all detected Black faces faster than white faces, biracial students were affected by thinking about one half of their racial identity and then behaved as if they were monoracial.