To learn more about the angry Black woman stereotype, we conducted two experiments that looked at reactions when people express anger at work. In our first experiment, we asked more than 300 undergraduate business students to watch one of eight videos, in which they observed a male supervisor to one of his employees. In each video, there were three factors at play: race, gender, and emotional response of the employee. (The employee was either Black or white, male or female, and angry or neutral.) When the employee was angry, their tone began to increase, eventually shouting and yelling at the supervisor.
After watching the video, participants of the study answered a series of questions, including questions about attributions (like was the employee’s anger internal or external?) performance evaluations (such as is this employee a good performer?) and leadership capabilities (for example, would this employee be a good leader?).
Our results found participants were more likely to attribute the anger of Black female employees to internal characteristics, or her personality. This had negative consequences because internal attributions translated into lower performance ratings and leadership evaluations. It’s important to note the demographics of the study’s participants didn’t affect the results; whether man or woman, Black or white (or other races), participants were more likely to attribute a Black woman expressing anger to her personality.
In our second experiment, the sample included 253 adults working across industries in the United States. Participants were asked to imagine they were a sales representative at a marketing company, and that one day on the job, another employee at the same marketing company came to their desk to talk. Then, participants listened to one of four audio recordings from their coworker. The recordings portrayed either a Black actress or a white actress, and either anger was expressed, or it was not. We used audio clips instead of video clips to avoid any distractions, such as how the employee looks. The employee in the audio clip who approached the desk had either a traditionally Black name, Lakeisha, or a traditionally white name, Claire.
In the recording, either Claire or Lakeisha told participants she had seen them come into work late, and how she had mentioned many times before that their tardiness was unprofessional. In the recordings that included expressions of anger, Lakeisha or Claire expressed a stern and hostile tone, raised their voices, and sounded noticeably annoyed and indignant about the participant’s tardiness. These voice affectations were absent in the other recordings. After listening to the clip, participants answered questions about stereotypes, such as: Are Black women aggressive? They also answered a series of questions about attributions, performance evaluations and leadership capabilities.
In the second experiment, participants were more likely to attribute the Black female employee’s anger to internal characteristics (her personality) because the behavior brought to mind the stereotype of an angry Black woman. Once again, this reaction had negative consequences for the Black woman, leading to poorer performance evaluations and lower assessment of her leadership capabilities, even when controlling for the gender and race of the study’s participants.
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