The Fluid Perception of Racial Identity

Abstract

Scholars view racial identity as a fluid social construction that can shift with time and context. But outside of academia, do people intuitively see racial identity as fluid or fixed? Four studies reveal that people see racial identity as varying flexibly with the social context—in particular, assimilating to the race of one’s friends. Participants perceived the same Black–White Biracial men as identifying as more Black (Study 1) and wanting to be perceived as more stereotypically Black (i.e., athletic; Study 3c) when with Black friends than when alone. Conversely, Biracial men were perceived as identifying as more White (Study 2) and wanting to be perceived as more stereotypically White (i.e., competent and well-spoken; Studies 3a, 3b) when with White friends. Fluid inferences of racial identity also extended to Monoracial people (Studies 4a, 4b). We conclude that people perceive others’ racial identity as shifting with the social context—eliciting distinct biases.