CSUN Professors Receive Grant For Race Perception Study

NORTHRIDGE, CA — Two psychology professors at California State University, Northridge received a $350,000 grant for their study on how multiracial Americans are perceived, according to CSUN Today.

The population of multiracial Americans has more than doubled in the last decade, and Debbie Ma and Justin Kantner want to understand how multiracial people are perceived given their identity breaks traditional racial binaries like Black and white. The researchers will use machines to measure brain activity when study participants look at images of multiracial people, according to CSUN Today.

"We, as humans, tend to think of so many things in terms of being either/or. Race is one of those things — you’re either Black or white, or brown or white, or Asian or white. When that sort of binary thinking is deeply embedded and you then meet a multiracial individual and they don’t mesh with your idea of either/or, there can be a sort of mental disconnect," Kantner told CSUN Today. He added: “What we hope to do is understand what happens to a person’s brain when that disconnect happens."

The study will examine how individuals process seeing a face that doesn't fit an easy, singular racial category. This data, the researchers said, will offer a jumping off point to dive into deeper conversations about American history, multiracial identity and racism, and how misperceptions practically impact multiracial people.

"As we become more and more multiracial, it becomes important for us to appreciate how our simple perceptions can impact how we deal with other people, and that the categories we put those people in may not apply in the way we think they do,” Ma said.

The National Science Foundation awarded the grant to Ma and Kantner.

Read the full article from CSUN Today.