When an “Educated” Black Man Becomes Lighter in the Mind’s Eye

We offer novel evidence that a Black man appears lighter in themind’s eye following a counter-stereotypic prime, a phenomenon we refer to as skin tonememory bias. In Experiment 1, participants were primed subliminally with thecounter-stereotypic word educated or with the stereotypic word ignorant, followed by thetarget stimulus of a Black man’s face. A recognition memory task for the target’s faceand six lures (skin tone variations of ±25%, ±37%, and ±50%) revealed that participantsprimed with “educated” exhibited more memory errors with respect to lighterlures—misidentifying even the lightest lure as the target more often than counterpartsprimed with “ignorant.” This skin tone memory bias was replicated in Experiment 2. Wesituate these findings in theorizing on the mind’s striving for cognitive consistency.Black individuals who defy social stereotypes might not challenge social normssufficiently but rather may be remembered as lighter, perpetuating status quobeliefs