2000/09/01 by Elizabeth A. Phelps, Kevin O’Connor, William A. Cunningham +4 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · Neuroscience · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Cultural Differences and Values #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research #Psychology #Amygdala #Unconscious mind #Race (biology) #White (mutation) #Stimulus (psychology) #Developmental psychology #Cognitive psychology #Social psychology #Neuroscience
paper · doi:10.1162/089892900562552
openalex publication_date 2000/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
We used fMRI to explore the neural substrates involved in the unconscious evaluation of Black and White social groups. Specifically, we focused on the amygdala, a subcortical structure known to play a role in emotional learning and evaluation. In Experiment 1, White American subjects observed faces of unfamiliar Black and White males. The strength of amygdala activation to Black-versus-White faces was correlated with two indirect (unconscious) measures of race evaluation (Implicit Association Test [IAT] and potentiated startle), but not with the direct (conscious) expression of race attitudes. In Experiment 2, these patterns were not obtained when the stimulus faces belonged to familiar and positively regarded Black and White individuals. Together, these results suggest that amygdala and behavioral responses to Black-versus-White faces in White subjects reflect cultural evaluations of social groups modified by individual experience.