vie media.npr.org
Researchers from NYU, University of Chicago and Tilburg University used the above photos to test how political affiliation affects perception of skin tone. President Obama's skin was lightened in the photo at left, unchanged in the middle photo and darkened at right.
How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
The perception of biracial politicians' skin tone may be tied to one's political views, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Chicago, NYU and Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Emily Balcetis, an assistant professor of psychology at NYU who collaborated in the study, believes the research could influence how biracial political candidates are portrayed in the media.
Although Balcetis said some suggest the candidates who are running for office appear "more white," voters may already have their views of a candidate with unclear racial origins based on their level of support for the candidate.
In conducting the study, Eugene Caruso, an assistant professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago, presented undergraduate students with photos from debates in 2008, along with photos from President Obama's website.
He altered some of the photos by lightening or darkening them to test if students noticed a difference.
Based on the experiment, Caruso determined that liberal-leaning students generally believe the lightened photos represent Obama best, while conservatives found the darkened photos represent him most accurately.
Balcetis said that although the findings do not directly address third-party voters, the researchers speculate that voters who consider a political candidate to have similar views to their own would perceive his or her skin tone to be lighter than it actually is.
According to the study, those who perceived Obama's skin tone to be lighter were reportedly more inclined to vote for him in the actual election.
The researchers believe that because of the Western association between lightness and good, people have a strong tendency to associate America with whiteness at an unconscious level.
"Although as a society I think we're making real progress toward reducing the amount of overt discrimination and racism, there are more subtle forms of bias that can still have very meaningful consequences," Balcetis said.
While the study did not find direct evidence of the media altering candidates' skin tones, the researchers said that media outlets may be able to influence voters' attitudes in the future by using artificial modifications.
The research team is planning to further pursue the study of biases in the way people are exposed to political images.
