According to research from the University of Illinois, viewers tend to associate intelligence-related qualities mainly with white, male characters. When these roles are played by women or people of colour, viewers find the content less believable.
This remains true even when the content is based on real events. For example, in the film “Hidden Figures”, its heroines – African-American female mathematicians who helped launch the US space programme, and who actually existed – were perceived as more unrealistic than Bobby Fischer, a white chess champion whose story is told in the biopic “Pawn Sacrifice”.
“We found an association between intelligence-related stereotype endorsement and decreases in viewers’ perceived realism across three different social identities – Black women, Black men and white women – for which high-level intelligence is counter-stereotypical,” said study lead author Matea Mustafaj.
“In each of these cases, the relationship was mediated by viewers’ judgement that the character was atypical of geniuses in general.”
The researchers surveyed 1,000 Americans aged between 19 and 77. Of these, 53% were women, 73% were white, 9% were from the Black community and 6% belonged to other ethnic groups.
Participants had to associate six specific traits with 16 different people based on their photos. Divided into four groups according to skin colour and gender, the people in these images looked between 20 and 35 years old and were considered slightly above average in terms of beauty.
Of the traits to be assigned, two were linked to intelligence (intelligent and logical). The other four were unrelated to intelligence (assertive, friendly, hardworking and emotional).
The findings show that the more participants adhered to intelligence stereotypes, the more they perceived brilliant characters played by white women or Black people of either gender as unrealistic.
Previous studies have shown that seeing diverse actresses or actors in roles that counter stereotypes can mitigate viewers’ prejudiced or stereotypical beliefs.
“However, the potential to change viewers’ beliefs may be undermined if they dismiss the characters or the plot as unrealistic. This may be particularly relevant with fictional stories or characters that viewers know are not fact-based,” the researchers explained.
“When people view entertainment media with counter-stereotypical representations that conflict with their beliefs, they will sometimes find ways to discount that information and not incorporate it into their understanding of people in the world in the way that theory might suggest,” Mustafaj added.
Despite increasing diversity in entertainment media, “consumers’ likelihood of exposure to content that conflicts with their views may not be greater”, the researchers noted, drawing on the findings of previous research they conducted.
“In that paper, published in the Journal of Media Psychology, viewers who endorsed gender-based stereotypes about intelligence were less likely to choose shows with characters that subverted their stereotypical beliefs,” the researchers concluded.