Mount Holyoke Case Study

For our second variable of race, researchers noted that individuals were more attracted to faces that were similar to themselves; in this case, these images were morphed with the photo of the participants to assure similarity (Hungr & Hunt, 2012). Another research found that similar faces to the participants, even when they were not manipulated, appeared as more friendly and likeable to participants (Zebrowitz et al., 2007). In our study, the opposite was observed where participants rated racially incongruent targets as marginally more likeable compared to participants congruent to the targets, however this was only the case in the non-college descriptions. Participants in the Mount Holyoke description did not have a significant difference

While the research found that White individuals did rate White targets as more similar to themselves, participants who exhibited a lower prejudice score rated Mexican-American targets as friendlier than White targets, therefore supporting the interaction in our second analysis (Goebel & Cole, 1975). This research is consistent with our study as White participants rated Black targets as significantly more likeable compared to when Black participants rated White targets. While we did not test for prejudice in our study, students in Liberal Arts institutions may be more socially aware and possibly lack prejudice especially at Mount Holyoke, which has a diverse campus. Moreover, other research examining facial exposure White individuals showed higher likeability of other-race faces more than their own-race faces, if previously exposed to those other-race faces. In this study, the other-race faces were images of Black and Korean targets (Zebrowitz, White & Wieneke, 2008). While we did not expose our participants to other-race faces prior to receiving the survey, Mount Holyoke is a diverse campus therefore increasing the likelihood of White students to be exposed to other races around campus, through courses and extracurricular