Hispanic Respondent Intelligence Level and Skin Tone

Abstract

Using the 2012 American National Election Study, the present article explored the relationship between interviewers’ assessment of respondent skin tone and their perception of respondent intelligence ( n = 459). Results from logistic regression analyses indicated that Hispanic respondents with the lightest skin were several times more likely to be seen as having high intelligence compared with those with the darkest skin. Importantly, this relationship was independent of respondent self-identified race, educational attainment, vocabulary test score, and several other respondent and interviewer characteristics. Implications for the growing body of research on colorism are discussed.