Do You See What I See? Effects of Group Consciousness on African American Women's Attributions to Prejudice

Abstract

This study examined the effects of three types of group consciousness among African American women ( ethnic, feminist, and womanist) on prejudice attributions and appraised personal significance ( centrality) of a negative intergroup event. African American female college students ( N = 123) imagined themselves in an audiotaped scenario in which they overheard two European American male classmates make negative evaluations of them. The scenario provided no cause for the negative evaluations and no references to race or gender. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher ethnic and womanist consciousness were related to increased prejudice attributions and greater centrality appraisals ( p < .05), while feminism had no effect. Results suggest that womanist consciousness may be more relevant than traditional feminist consciousness in predicting African American women's perceptions of prejudice.