Brain Research
Volume 1375, 2011, Pages 103-110

N400 and the activation of prejudice against rural migrant workers in China (Article)

Wang L. , Ma Q.* , Song Z. , Shi Y. , Wang Y. , Pfotenhauer L.
  • a Department of Management Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China, Neuromanagement Lab, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • b Department of Management Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China, Neuromanagement Lab, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • c Department of Management Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • d Department of Management Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • e Neuromanagement Lab, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • f Saint Olaf College, 510 Hilltop Drive, Madison, WI 53711, United States

Abstract

Rural migrant workers (RMWs) are a special social group under the household registration system in China. Although RMWs work in the city, they are not issued a permanent city resident card, and are hardly integrated into the city life. City residents harbour strong negative stereotypes about RMWs. Facing a word-pair comprising a status noun (RMWs vs. Unban workers) followed by an adjective, 16 young participants were required to classify the adjective as being either negative or positive, while the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. An ERP component identified as the N400 was found, and was studied with the question whether its amplitude reflected the effects of prejudice against RMWs. The reaction times to identify the positive adjectives preceded by the nouns pertaining to RMWs were significantly longer than to those preceded by nouns denoting Urban workers. The amplitude of the N400 evoked in RMW-Positive adjective condition was significantly larger than in Urban worker-Positive adjective condition, possibly reflecting the higher conflict when participants identified the adjectives as positive primed by RMWs. These findings revealed that negative stereotypes about RMWs still exist today, although Chinese mainstream media has disseminated positive messages about the RMWs for decades. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords

Prejudice stereotypes N400 ERPs Rural migrant worker

Index Keywords

urban population China social psychology Stereotyping human Names Reaction Time rural population priority journal Young Adult migrant worker Humans male urban rural difference female Article positive feedback event related potential Evoked Potentials adult human experiment Prejudice electroencephalography normal human Transients and Migrants nomenclature negative feedback
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-79651471188&doi=10.1016%2fj.brainres.2010.12.021&partnerID=40&md5=d71b0846dda55aee7dc26e0d5a254565
DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2010.12.021
ISSN: 00068993
Cited by: 20
Original Language: English