AUTHOR=Opie Tina R. , Phillips Katherine W. 

TITLE=Hair penalties: the negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=6

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01311

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01311

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Purpose:</bold> Women are penalized if they do not behave in a stereotype-congruent manner (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B23">Heilman, 1983</xref>, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B24">2001</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B18">Eagly and Carli, 2007</xref>). For example, because women are not expected to be agentic they incur an “agency penalty” for expressing anger, dominance or assertiveness (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B64">Rudman, 1998</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B66">Rudman and Glick, 1999</xref>, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B67">2001</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B19">Eagly and Karau, 2002</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B65">Rudman and Fairchild, 2004</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B6">Brescoll and Uhlmann, 2008</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B37">Livingston et al., 2012</xref>). Yet, all women are not equally penalized (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B37">Livingston et al., 2012</xref>). We make a novel contribution by examining how both White and Black evaluators respond to displays of Black women’s dominance, in this case, whether Black women choose to wear Afrocentric or Eurocentric hairstyles.</p><p><bold>Design/methodology/approach</bold>: We conducted three experimental studies to examine the influence of target hairstyle and participant race on ratings of the target’s professionalism (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and dominance (Study 2). Study 1 was an online experimental study with 200 participants (112 females, 87 males, 1 missing gender; 160 Whites, 19 Blacks, 11 Latinos, 7 Asian Americans and 3 who identify as “other”; <italic>M</italic><sub>age</sub> = 35.5, <italic>SD</italic> = 11.4). Study 2 was an online experimental study with 510 participants (276 women, 234 males; 256 Blacks, 254 Whites; <italic>M</italic><sub>age</sub> = 41.25 years, <italic>SD</italic> = 12.21). Study 3 was an online experimental study with 291 participants (141 Blacks, 150 Whites, <italic>M</italic><sub>age</sub> = 47.5 years, <italic>SD</italic> = 11.66).</p><p><bold>Findings</bold>: Black, as compared to White, evaluators gave higher agency penalties to Black employment candidates when they donned Afrocentric versus Eurocentric hair, rating them as more dominant and less professional.</p><p><bold>Implications:</bold> The present research illustrates the significance of considering both target and evaluator race when examining the influence of agency, and specifically dominance, on ratings of professionalism.</p>