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BINOCULAR RESOLUTION AND PERCEPTION OF RACE IN SOUTH AFRICA *
Author(s) -
PETTIGREW THOMAS F.,
ALLPORT GORDON W.,
BARNETT ERIC O.
Publication year - 1958
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1958.tb00665.x
Subject(s) - binocular rivalry , psychology , perception , social psychology , social perception , stimulus (psychology) , visual perception , cognitive psychology , neuroscience
Our experiment uses a newly developed method for research in social perception: a brief stereoscopic presentation of pairs of racial photographs. Members of the four major racial groups in South Africa—Europeans, Coloureds, Indians, and Africans—serve both as judges and as photographic stimulus material. The factor of eye dominance is controlled. While the stimulus material itself accounts for many of the findings, there is clear evidence that ‘directed state’ factors are also at work. White South Africans, especially the Afrikaners, seem to manifest a ‘perceptual vigilance’ in their judgements. They report racially mixed photographs to be either pure European or full‐blooded African more often than do judges of other races. This tendency is consistent with the bifurcation (judgements of ‘black’ or ‘white’) known to be characteristic of people who are apprehensive concerning race relations. The use of meaningful stimuli presented in a setting of binocular rivalry offers new promise for the study of cultural and personal determinants in perception.