Can race be replaced? Ecology and race categorization

Why do people categorize others by race? Building on recent work integrating affordance management with a life history perspective, we propose that one reason perceivers categorize others by race is because race is a cue to the environments/ecologies in which groups live. In the U.S., because Black and White individuals differentially live in environments that vary in ecological harshness/unpredictability, race may be used as a cue of a person's home ecology. In three experiments (undergraduate and online U.S. samples; N = 1260) with the memory confusion paradigm (“who-said-what”), when American perceivers are presented with information on both a person's race (i.e., Black/White) and the ecologies in which they live (i.e., harsh/hopeful), racial categorization decreases, and ecology categorization emerges (Studies 1–3). Hence, in the minds of perceivers, the ecologies that others come from “replaces” others' race. However, counter to expectations, instructing perceivers to form social impressions of others on traits linked to ecological harshness (i.e., “planfulness”) led to ecology categorization disappearing (Study 3). We discuss implications of our findings for race perception and for social perception at large.