Memory of an Outgroup

This study examined White individuals’ ability to recall non-White criminal perpetrators, specifically Middle Eastern-looking men, as portrayed in news stories. Considering social identity theory and the Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern terrorist stereotype, White participants were expected to correctly identify White European-looking men and misidentify Middle Eastern-looking men as the perpetrators in news stories. A 2 (race/ethnicity of the perpetrator: White European- or Middle Eastern-looking) × 2 (story type: violent or nonviolent) experiment revealed that correct recall of the perpetrator for Middle Eastern-looking men was lower than that of White European-looking men. However, White individuals were not significantly more likely to incorrectly recall Middle Eastern-looking men than White European-looking men as perpetrators. Regardless of condition, more negative attitudes toward Arabs and Muslims predicted the incorrect recall of both Middle Eastern- and White European-looking men as perpetrators. Thes...

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