Browsing by Author "Jackson, Barbara Larsha"

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    The Color Line: the Influence of Race on Aesthetic Experience and its Inferred Connection to Implicit Racial Bias
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2020) Jackson, Barbara Larsha; Black, Sheila; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Implicit bias literature widely reports that biases shape perception in a number of real-world situations. However, a review of literature found no existing implicit bias studies that focus on the activation of biases during the process of art assessment. The current study fills this empirical gap. Methods: Eighty-nine students (Black — 33; White — 56) participated in a study on art interpretation where they judged fifteen paintings in four categories— Mainstream, Blackstream, Activist and Political— and reported on three dimensions related to their assessment, like, comfort and valence. Results: An analysis of the data determined that the Blackstream category yielded significant results on the dimension of comfort with White people being less comfortable with images in the Blackstream category than Blacks. No other significant results were found on the dimensions of comfort or like in the other art categories, indicating that there were no significant differences in participant responses to the artworks in these categories. A word analysis on the written interpretations of the paintings was conducted on the dimensions of positive, neutral and negative language usage, which indicated that Whites responded less positively than Blacks to art in the Blackstream category. Discussion and implications: These findings indicate that race plays a role in the interpretation of paintings, specifically those in the Black art category. A future study will examine how age, executive functioning, openness to experience, explicit and implicit racism play a role in mediating the responses of Black and White participants to artworks. Keywords: perception, aesthetic experience, race, art
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    Reframing Aesthetic Experience: the Influence of Racial Bias, Openness, and Cognition on Painting Perception
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2023) Jackson, Barbara Larsha; Black, Sheila
    The present study explores whether executive functioning, openness to experience and implicit and explicit racial bias influence painting judgements. Black and White adults (aged 30+) and young adults (aged 18-29) evaluated paintings by Black and White artists and responded to items on like, comfort, valence, and value. Additionally, they completed a 44-item Big Factor Inventory, the Stroop task, the Implicit Association Test (IAT), and the Symbolic Racism Scale. The results yielded statistically significant interactions between Race and Art Type on the dimensions of comfort, like and value. Specifically, White participants were less comfortable with, liked and valued Black Mainstream and Black Political art less. Additionally, White participants compared to Black participants were more likely to use racialized language when describing art in the Black Mainstream and Black Political categories. These results were consistent with expectations. Moderation analyses determined that age did not moderate any of the effects. Meaning, age in this study was not a significant factor contributing to participants ratings of paintings, this was inconsistent with expectations. Additionally, a moderation analysis determined that age, explicit and implicit racial bias, inhibitory control, and openness did not moderate the effects of the Race x Art Type interaction, meaning that racism, personality, and cognitive ability were not significant contributors to ratings of art among participants. This research supports the need for future research that explores intracultural differences in art perception and the underlying factors contributing to these differences.