The Effects Of Racial Stereotypes On False Recall

<p>Prejudiced behavior based on racial stereotypes has been found to negatively impact young, black offenders in the juvenile probation system. One issue that may contribute to this is the creation of false memories. In fact, false memories have been linked to many wrongful convictions in the U.S. legal system. It is well known that memories are malleable and are often reconstructed. As a result, it has been theorized that suggestive law enforcement interrogations can cause people to misremember events or even generate false memories. Such mistakes can lead to disastrous consequences, including incarceration of innocent people. At present, there is a small, but important body of work that has analyzed the effects of gender stereotypes on false memory creation. However, the possible effects of racial stereotypes on false memory creation need to be identified. In the current studies, the stereotype of a “young, African-American man” or a “young, Caucasian man” was activated prior to utilizing the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Participants were more likely to falsely recall negatively valenced critical target words after explicitly or implicitly activating a stereotype of a “young, African-American man.” These results begin to suggest that racial stereotypes may be playing a role in false memories and they could help to explain the racial disparities in the U.S. justice system. The results also highlight the need for further research in this area to better understand the level of influence these effects have.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. in Psychology

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Loria, Melissa Jane

Contributors dc:contributor

• Matthew B. Reysen
• Joshua Magruder
• Elicia Lair

• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/841

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1840