The impact of social norms on navigating race in a racially diverse context

To date, research has primarily focused on the colorblind norms andbehaviors of majority-White participants in majority-White contexts.Extending this work to more diverse samples and contexts, across fourstudies we examine whether colorblind norms link to the colorblindbehavior of racially diverse participants living in a racially diverse (i.e.,heterogeneous) context. Findings suggest that participants living in aracially diverse context did not endorse colorblind beliefs (Study 1) andnorms (Study 2) and instead behave in race-conscious ways andoverwhelmingly use race in a photo-identification task. Furthermore, inStudy 3 we find that colorblind norms are largely activated by the beliefthat talking about race is prejudiced. When participants were exposed toa social norm that linked talking about race to prejudice, colorblindbehavior became more prevalent. Finally, in Study 4, we see that greaterdiversity of one’s context is correlated to less endorsement ofcolorblindness