Eyeglasses Reduce Implicit Prejudice Toward People With a Tattoo Ariana C. Torrejon, Colin A. Zestcott, & Jeff Stone University of Arizona Background: Zestcott, Bean & Stone (2014) reported that participants expressed implicit prejudice toward individuals with a tribal tattoo on one side of the neck. Implicit prejudice occurred even when the tattoo was symmetrical, the image was positive, and among people with a tattoo, suggesting that negative affect underlies the implicit negative evaluation of tattooed individuals. What can people with a tattoo do to reduce the expression of implicit prejudice by others? Evidence shows that people who wear glasses are rated more positively than people who do not wear glasses (Leder, Forster, & Gerger, 2011). Eyeglasses may act as a simple cue that causes perceivers to recategorize individuals with a tattoo from a negative group (e.g,. criminal) to more positive group (e.g., artist). As a result, perceivers will express less implicit prejudice toward people with a tattoo. Hypotheses: Study 1: Perceivers will show less implicit prejudice towards tattooed individuals who wear eyeglasses compared to tattooed individuals who do not eyeglasses. Study 2: The degree to which the tattooed targets glasses reduce implicit prejudice will be moderated by whether or not the perceivers also wear eyeglasses. Study 1: Procedure: 139 (74 female) undergraduates took an IAT categorizing positive and negative words with tattooed images with and without eyeglasses (full rimmed or rimless ) Study 2 Procedure: 107 (53 with eyeglasses) undergraduate participants took a Multicategory IAT categorizing the positive and negative words in Study 1 with non-tattooed images, non-tattooed images with glasses, tattooed images with glasses and tattooed images. Study 1 Results:Study 2 Results: Discussion: Study 1 indicates that wearing eyeglasses, regardless of the type (i.e. full-rimmed, or rimless), reduces implicit prejudice toward tattooed individuals. Study 2 replicated Study 1, and further showed that if the perceivers also wear eyeglasses, they express significantly less prejudice toward tattooed individuals who wear glasses, compared to tattooed individuals who do not wear glasses. Study 3 (underway): Examine distraction vs. recategorization. If eyeglasses are only a distraction from the tattoo, then sunglasses should also distract from the tattoo and reduce bias as well. However, if sunglasses do not reduce the implicit prejudice, the data would support our theory that eyeglasses induce recategorization of people who display a tattoo. References: Leder, H., Forster, M., & Gerger, G. (2011). The glasses stereotype revisited: Effects of glasses on perception, recognition and impressions of faces. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 70, Zestcott, C.A., Bean, M.G., & Stone, J. (2014). Evidence of negative implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tattoo. Manuscript submitted for publication. Study 2 Results (cont.): Perceivers Prefer Tattoo w/ Glasses over Tattoo w/o GlassesPerceivers w/ and w/o Glasses prefer Tattoo w/Glasses over Tattoo w/o Glasses (Replicates Study 1) Perceivers w/ and w/o Glasses prefer a Clean Face over Tattoo w/o Glasses (Replicates Zestcott et al., 2014) **Perceivers w/ Glasses show significantly less preference for a Clean Face vs. Tattoo w/Glasses compared to perceivers w/o Glasses VS Positive words: Clean, Smart, Honest, Attractive and Safe Negative words: Dirty, Stupid, Devious, Ugly and Dangerous p =.014