The Effects of Anger and Happiness on Opposite Valence Racial Stereotypes

This research examines angry and happy (versus neutral) emotions and how they affect ethnic stereotyping. Research has found that both anger and happiness increase a person’s reliance on stereotype information versus neutral emotion when making social judgments. Research has also found that ethnic stereotypes are not exclusively negative, as some stereotypes make positive generalizations of certain groups. However, research on ethnic stereotypes has exclusively been presented in a negative and not a positive context. Furthermore, past studies have only focused on negatively stereotyped racial groups (e.g., Hispanics) and not positively stereotyped racial groups (e.g., Asians). This research concentrates on both positively and negatively stereotyped groups, in both a negative and a positive context, with positive and negative emotions. This experiment explores Hispanic stereotypes in both a negative and positive context for participants who were induced to be either angry, happy, or neutral. Furthermore, we included an Asian ethnic condition, which is stereotype-inconsistent from the aggressive trait associated with Hispanics. Implications about the effects and limitations that anger and happiness have on increasing stereotyping versus neutrality are also discussed.