Racial Representation in Psychology Textbooks

Abstract

The present research examines racial representation in psychology textbooks and its impact on students' personal relatability to psychological theories through two interconnected studies. Study 1 analyzed racial and skin tone representation across five psychology textbooks used in East/Southeast Asian universities, revealing significant overrepresentation of White individuals (66% of images) and light skin tones (68% of images) despite serving predominantly non-White student populations. Study 2 experimentally tested how representational (in)congruence affects Hong Kong Chinese university students' ability to personally relate to psychological content. Results showed significantly higher personal relatability to psychological theories when materials featured both ethnically and linguistically congruent content compared to incongruent content (p < 0.05). This relationship was fully mediated by students' perception of textbook images as representing their ingroup. The findings demonstrate how global power asymmetries in knowledge production continue to shape psychological education across geopolitical contexts, particularly through the persistent dominance of Western/White representations in educational materials used internationally. This research contributes to understanding how colonial-era social hierarchies are reproduced through contemporary academic practices, offering practical implications for decolonizing psychological pedagogy and creating more internationally relevant educational materials.