Minority representation as a visual safety cue for marginalized groups: Ensemble coding of race and gender

Across three studies (N = 300), we tested whether minority representation in briefly presented (500ms) facial arrays served as a safety cue to attenuate social identity threat for marginalized perceivers (White women, Black men, Black women). Perceivers were overall accurate at ensemble coding race and gender (Studies 1-3). White and Black women (Studies 1,3), but not Black men (Study 2), were hypervigilant to ingroup representation, as evidenced by heightened accuracy of perceived representation relative to advantaged (White male) perceivers. Increasing representation of one’s ingroup also resulted in increased perceptions of identity safety for marginalized group members, (Studies 1-3). This representational safety cue, however, did not transfer to other marginalized groups (Studies 1-2) and was stronger for full (race and gender) than partial ingroup representation (race or gender; Study 3). Results indicate that ingroup minority representation – even with a brief glimpse – serves as an effective identity safety cue.