Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Anger And Happiness On Opposite Valence Racial Stereotypes, Diego Gomez

McNair Research Journal SJSU

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 …