Phia S Salter
Biographic Data
| ID | 187422 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Phia S Salter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Phia S |
| FAMILY NAME | Salter |
| SIGNATURE | SALTER P S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Texas A&M University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4138-5659 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 67 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Lay-theories reflect, reproduce, deny, and acknowledge racism: Explaining Covid-19 racial health disparities in the United States
Lay-theories are sets of interconnected ideas people use to understand and explain their worlds. We used a reflexive thematic analysis to investigate participant-generated lay-beliefs about COVID-19 disparities between White and Black communities ( N = 150) and between White and Latinx communities ( N = 145) in the United States. Informed by Critical Race Psychology perspectives, we discuss how racism is reflected and reproduced in lay-beliefs ab…
Geopolitical Roots and Branches: Identity Label Preferences Among People of African Descent in the United States
In the United States, people of African descent have historically used different labels to express their collective racial identities. Scholars have traced these historical changes over time, which have shifted for various reasons, across different political and social movements, and with changing group dynamics. The purpose of this study was to examine contemporary racial identity label preferences among people of African descent living in the U…
Perceptions of racism in voter suppression: Testing the Marley hypothesis and a brief educational intervention
The current research tests the Marley hypothesis—the role of historical knowledge as a mediator between racial group differences and perceptions of racism—in the context of voter suppression. In Study 1 ( N = 205), Black and White participants completed a voting rights history test, racial identification measures, and perceptions of racism items in the context of voter suppression. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that when racial identity w…
Each one, teach one: Critical history as counterstories, antiracist affordances, and cues for belonging
Recently, there have been several calls for psychologists to dismantle systemic racism within the field (e.g., Buchanan et al., 2021; Dupree & Boykin, 2021; Wilcox et al., 2022). In this article, we discuss why incorporating critical histories into psychology curricula can be beneficial to this effort. We focus on three potential pathways: critical histories provide counterstories that challenge racist narratives, critical histories promote conte…
Shifting systems of racial inequity: Applying critical race psychology to advance racial justice
Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a renewed and more mainstream attention to systemic racism emerged. Critical Race Theory (CRT) has permeated the larger public discourse around race more than ever before. Yet, social, scientific, and political backlash intended to silence conversations about the systemic and power‐driven nature of racism have also characterized these years. 30+ years have passed since CRT's introduction as a critical ana…
Focusing the critical race psychology lens: CRT and the psychological study of social issues
The years since George Floyd's murder in 2020 have been characterized by both a renewed attention to systemic racism and a backlash intended to silence conversations about race. Critical Race Theory (CRT), in particular, has become a larger part of the public discourse around race than ever before. Although CRT developed in the 1980s as a critical approach in legal studies and was incorporated into social psychology in the 1990s, psychology's eng…
Goal Derailment and Goal Persistence in Response to Honor Threats
In honor cultures, maintaining a positive moral reputation (e.g., being known as an honest person) is highly important, whereas in dignity cultures, self-respect (e.g., competence and success) is strongly emphasized. Depending on their cultural background, people respond differently to threats to these two dimensions of honor. In two studies, we examined the effects of morality-focused and competence-focused threats on people’s goal pursuit in tw…
“No, but where are you really from?” Experiences of perceived discrimination and identity development among Asian Indian adolescents
Asian Indians were the first South Asians to immigrate to the United States in the late 1800s and are currently the largest ethnic group of South Asians living in the United States. Despite this the literature on perceived ethnic and racial discrimination experiences among this group is relatively understudied. The documented experiences of Asian Indians who either recently immigrated from India or were born and raised in America pose an importan…
When race trumps political ideology: Black teachers who advocate for social responsibility are penalized by both liberals and conservatives
Meritocracy is a prominent narrative embedded in America’s educational system: work hard and anyone can achieve success. Yet, racial disparities in education suggest this narrative does not tell the full story. Four studies ( N = 1,439) examined how applicants for a teaching position are evaluated when they invoke different narratives regarding who or what is to blame for racial disparities (i.e., individuals vs. systems). We hypothesized these e…
Psychological Perspectives on Perceptions of Black Victimhood in the United States
The influence of honor threats on goal delay and goal derailment: A comparison of Turkey, Southern US, and Northern US
Ignoring History, Denying Racism: Mounting Evidence for the Marley Hypothesis and Epistemologies of Ignorance
In demonstration of the Marley hypothesis, Nelson, Adams, and Salter showed that differences in critical historical knowledge (i.e., knowledge of past racism) and motivation to protect group esteem predicted present-day racism perceptions among Whites and Blacks attending different, racially homogenous universities. The present Study 1 conceptually replicates these findings among Whites and Blacks attending the same racially diverse university. C…
Trust, Innocence, and Individual Responsibility: Neoliberal Dreams of a Colorblind Peace
In his 1944 article, Prospect of a World Without Racial Conflict , W.E.B. DuBois hypothesized that we would never live in a world without racial division. With this in mind, we highlight how neoliberal ideologies promote policy, actions, and an idea of peace that upholds racial inequality in the United States. We consider how neoliberal tenets, such as free market trust and individual responsibility, reflect and promote misperceptions of racial c…
Racism in the Structure of Everyday Worlds: A Cultural-Psychological Perspective
Theory and research in cultural psychology highlight the need to examine racism not only “in the head” but also “in the world.” Racism is often defined as individual prejudice, but racism is also systemic, existing in the advantages and disadvantages imprinted in cultural artifacts, ideological discourse, and institutional realities that work together with individual biases. In this review, we highlight examples of historically derived ideas and …
Subordinated Knowledge as a Tool for Creative Maladjustment and Resistance to Racial Oppression
In his address to the APA, King (1968) suggested that critical consciousness about racism, based on realities of African American experience, could serve as a tool for creative maladjustment : resistance to collective delusions and refusal to assimilate to pathological norms of a racist society. In this article, we summarize a program of research that applies decolonial perspectives of cultural psychology and a focus on the intentionality of ever…
Critical Race Studies in Psychology
This chapter outlines Critical Race Psychology (CRP) as a theoretical framework that integrates the main themes articulated in critical race theory and critical social-psychological approaches to understanding race and racism. Critical race studies in psychology dispel the idea that racism is primarily perpetuated by individual bigots and racists and instead looks toward the everyday beliefs, justifications, ideas, and behaviors that are inextric…
Who Needs Individual Responsibility? Audience Race and Message Content Influence Third-Party Evaluations of Political Messages
The present research examined the idea that people believe Black Americans think society is less fair than members of other racial groups (Study 1a), that these beliefs are out of touch with reality (Study 1b), and that Black audiences need to hear individual blame messages to bring these discrepant views more in line with reality (Study 2). We then examined a downstream consequence of these beliefs: differing third-party evaluations of speeches …
Beyond Adaptation: Decolonizing Approaches to Coping With Oppression
How should one respond to racial oppression? Conventional prescriptions of mainstream social psychological science emphasize the idea of coping with oppression—whether via emotional management strategies that emphasize denial or disengagement; problem-focused strategies that emphasize compensation, self-efficacy, or skills training; or collective strategies that emphasize emotional support—in ways that promote adaptation to, rather than transform…
The Marley Hypothesis: Denial of Racism Reflects Ignorance of History
This study used a signal detection paradigm to explore the Marley hypothesis—that group differences in perception of racism reflect dominant-group denial of and ignorance about the extent of past racism. White American students from a midwestern university and Black American students from two historically Black universities completed surveys about their historical knowledge and perception of racism. Relative to Black participants, White participa…
Toward a Critical Race Psychology
Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged as an identity‐conscious intervention within critical legal studies and has subsequently developed an interdisciplinary presence. We draw upon CRT perspectives to articulate five core ideas for a Critical Race Psychology (CRP). CRT perspectives (1) approach racism as a systemic force embedded in everyday society (rather than a problem of individual bias); (2) illuminate how ideologies of neoliberal individualism…
Mother or Wife: An African Dilemma Tale and the Psychological Dynamics of Sociocultural Change
Inspired by "Mother or Wife" African dilemma tales, the present research utilizes a cultural psychology perspective to explore the dynamic, mutual constitution of personal relationship tendencies and cultural-ecological affordances for neoliberal subjectivity and abstracted independence. We administered a resource allocation task in Ghana and the United States to assess the prioritization of conjugal/nuclear relationships over consanguine/kin rel…
Health Psychology in African Settings: A Cultural-psychological Analysis
African settings provide an important context in which to examine the relationship between cultural beliefs and health. First, research in African settings helps illuminate the sociocultural grounding of health and illness: the idea that beliefs play a constitutive role in the experience of distress. Second, research in African settings helps to illuminate the cultural grounding of health sciences: the idea that theory and practice reflect partic…
Beyond Adaptation: Decolonizing Approaches to Coping With Oppression
How should one respond to racial oppression? Conventional prescriptions of mainstream social psychological science emphasize the idea of coping with oppression—whether via emotional management strategies that emphasize denial or disengagement; problem-focused strategies that emphasize compensation, self-efficacy, or skills training; or collective strategies that emphasize emotional support—in ways that promote adaptation to, rather than transform…
Trust, Innocence, and Individual Responsibility: Neoliberal Dreams of a Colorblind Peace
In his 1944 article, Prospect of a World Without Racial Conflict , W.E.B. DuBois hypothesized that we would never live in a world without racial division. With this in mind, we highlight how neoliberal ideologies promote policy, actions, and an idea of peace that upholds racial inequality in the United States. We consider how neoliberal tenets, such as free market trust and individual responsibility, reflect and promote misperceptions of racial c…
Subordinated Knowledge as a Tool for Creative Maladjustment and Resistance to Racial Oppression
In his address to the APA, King (1968) suggested that critical consciousness about racism, based on realities of African American experience, could serve as a tool for creative maladjustment : resistance to collective delusions and refusal to assimilate to pathological norms of a racist society. In this article, we summarize a program of research that applies decolonial perspectives of cultural psychology and a focus on the intentionality of ever…
Health Psychology in African Settings: A Cultural-psychological Analysis
African settings provide an important context in which to examine the relationship between cultural beliefs and health. First, research in African settings helps illuminate the sociocultural grounding of health and illness: the idea that beliefs play a constitutive role in the experience of distress. Second, research in African settings helps to illuminate the cultural grounding of health sciences: the idea that theory and practice reflect partic…
Mother or Wife: An African Dilemma Tale and the Psychological Dynamics of Sociocultural Change
Inspired by "Mother or Wife" African dilemma tales, the present research utilizes a cultural psychology perspective to explore the dynamic, mutual constitution of personal relationship tendencies and cultural-ecological affordances for neoliberal subjectivity and abstracted independence. We administered a resource allocation task in Ghana and the United States to assess the prioritization of conjugal/nuclear relationships over consanguine/kin rel…
Psychological Perspectives on Perceptions of Black Victimhood in the United States
The influence of honor threats on goal delay and goal derailment: A comparison of Turkey, Southern US, and Northern US
Focusing the critical race psychology lens: CRT and the psychological study of social issues
The years since George Floyd's murder in 2020 have been characterized by both a renewed attention to systemic racism and a backlash intended to silence conversations about race. Critical Race Theory (CRT), in particular, has become a larger part of the public discourse around race than ever before. Although CRT developed in the 1980s as a critical approach in legal studies and was incorporated into social psychology in the 1990s, psychology's eng…
Geopolitical Roots and Branches: Identity Label Preferences Among People of African Descent in the United States
In the United States, people of African descent have historically used different labels to express their collective racial identities. Scholars have traced these historical changes over time, which have shifted for various reasons, across different political and social movements, and with changing group dynamics. The purpose of this study was to examine contemporary racial identity label preferences among people of African descent living in the U…
Perceptions of racism in voter suppression: Testing the Marley hypothesis and a brief educational intervention
The current research tests the Marley hypothesis—the role of historical knowledge as a mediator between racial group differences and perceptions of racism—in the context of voter suppression. In Study 1 ( N = 205), Black and White participants completed a voting rights history test, racial identification measures, and perceptions of racism items in the context of voter suppression. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that when racial identity w…
Shifting systems of racial inequity: Applying critical race psychology to advance racial justice
Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a renewed and more mainstream attention to systemic racism emerged. Critical Race Theory (CRT) has permeated the larger public discourse around race more than ever before. Yet, social, scientific, and political backlash intended to silence conversations about the systemic and power‐driven nature of racism have also characterized these years. 30+ years have passed since CRT's introduction as a critical ana…
Goal Derailment and Goal Persistence in Response to Honor Threats
In honor cultures, maintaining a positive moral reputation (e.g., being known as an honest person) is highly important, whereas in dignity cultures, self-respect (e.g., competence and success) is strongly emphasized. Depending on their cultural background, people respond differently to threats to these two dimensions of honor. In two studies, we examined the effects of morality-focused and competence-focused threats on people’s goal pursuit in tw…
Health Psychology in African Settings: A Cultural-psychological Analysis
African settings provide an important context in which to examine the relationship between cultural beliefs and health. First, research in African settings helps illuminate the sociocultural grounding of health and illness: the idea that beliefs play a constitutive role in the experience of distress. Second, research in African settings helps to illuminate the cultural grounding of health sciences: the idea that theory and practice reflect partic…
Mother or Wife: An African Dilemma Tale and the Psychological Dynamics of Sociocultural Change
Inspired by "Mother or Wife" African dilemma tales, the present research utilizes a cultural psychology perspective to explore the dynamic, mutual constitution of personal relationship tendencies and cultural-ecological affordances for neoliberal subjectivity and abstracted independence. We administered a resource allocation task in Ghana and the United States to assess the prioritization of conjugal/nuclear relationships over consanguine/kin rel…
The Marley Hypothesis: Denial of Racism Reflects Ignorance of History
This study used a signal detection paradigm to explore the Marley hypothesis—that group differences in perception of racism reflect dominant-group denial of and ignorance about the extent of past racism. White American students from a midwestern university and Black American students from two historically Black universities completed surveys about their historical knowledge and perception of racism. Relative to Black participants, White participa…
Toward a Critical Race Psychology
Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged as an identity‐conscious intervention within critical legal studies and has subsequently developed an interdisciplinary presence. We draw upon CRT perspectives to articulate five core ideas for a Critical Race Psychology (CRP). CRT perspectives (1) approach racism as a systemic force embedded in everyday society (rather than a problem of individual bias); (2) illuminate how ideologies of neoliberal individualism…
Beyond Adaptation: Decolonizing Approaches to Coping With Oppression
How should one respond to racial oppression? Conventional prescriptions of mainstream social psychological science emphasize the idea of coping with oppression—whether via emotional management strategies that emphasize denial or disengagement; problem-focused strategies that emphasize compensation, self-efficacy, or skills training; or collective strategies that emphasize emotional support—in ways that promote adaptation to, rather than transform…
Who Needs Individual Responsibility? Audience Race and Message Content Influence Third-Party Evaluations of Political Messages
The present research examined the idea that people believe Black Americans think society is less fair than members of other racial groups (Study 1a), that these beliefs are out of touch with reality (Study 1b), and that Black audiences need to hear individual blame messages to bring these discrepant views more in line with reality (Study 2). We then examined a downstream consequence of these beliefs: differing third-party evaluations of speeches …
Critical Race Studies in Psychology
This chapter outlines Critical Race Psychology (CRP) as a theoretical framework that integrates the main themes articulated in critical race theory and critical social-psychological approaches to understanding race and racism. Critical race studies in psychology dispel the idea that racism is primarily perpetuated by individual bigots and racists and instead looks toward the everyday beliefs, justifications, ideas, and behaviors that are inextric…
Racism in the Structure of Everyday Worlds: A Cultural-Psychological Perspective
Theory and research in cultural psychology highlight the need to examine racism not only “in the head” but also “in the world.” Racism is often defined as individual prejudice, but racism is also systemic, existing in the advantages and disadvantages imprinted in cultural artifacts, ideological discourse, and institutional realities that work together with individual biases. In this review, we highlight examples of historically derived ideas and …
Subordinated Knowledge as a Tool for Creative Maladjustment and Resistance to Racial Oppression
In his address to the APA, King (1968) suggested that critical consciousness about racism, based on realities of African American experience, could serve as a tool for creative maladjustment : resistance to collective delusions and refusal to assimilate to pathological norms of a racist society. In this article, we summarize a program of research that applies decolonial perspectives of cultural psychology and a focus on the intentionality of ever…
Ignoring History, Denying Racism: Mounting Evidence for the Marley Hypothesis and Epistemologies of Ignorance
In demonstration of the Marley hypothesis, Nelson, Adams, and Salter showed that differences in critical historical knowledge (i.e., knowledge of past racism) and motivation to protect group esteem predicted present-day racism perceptions among Whites and Blacks attending different, racially homogenous universities. The present Study 1 conceptually replicates these findings among Whites and Blacks attending the same racially diverse university. C…
Trust, Innocence, and Individual Responsibility: Neoliberal Dreams of a Colorblind Peace
In his 1944 article, Prospect of a World Without Racial Conflict , W.E.B. DuBois hypothesized that we would never live in a world without racial division. With this in mind, we highlight how neoliberal ideologies promote policy, actions, and an idea of peace that upholds racial inequality in the United States. We consider how neoliberal tenets, such as free market trust and individual responsibility, reflect and promote misperceptions of racial c…
The influence of honor threats on goal delay and goal derailment: A comparison of Turkey, Southern US, and Northern US
“No, but where are you really from?” Experiences of perceived discrimination and identity development among Asian Indian adolescents
Asian Indians were the first South Asians to immigrate to the United States in the late 1800s and are currently the largest ethnic group of South Asians living in the United States. Despite this the literature on perceived ethnic and racial discrimination experiences among this group is relatively understudied. The documented experiences of Asian Indians who either recently immigrated from India or were born and raised in America pose an importan…
When race trumps political ideology: Black teachers who advocate for social responsibility are penalized by both liberals and conservatives
Meritocracy is a prominent narrative embedded in America’s educational system: work hard and anyone can achieve success. Yet, racial disparities in education suggest this narrative does not tell the full story. Four studies ( N = 1,439) examined how applicants for a teaching position are evaluated when they invoke different narratives regarding who or what is to blame for racial disparities (i.e., individuals vs. systems). We hypothesized these e…
Psychological Perspectives on Perceptions of Black Victimhood in the United States
Goal Derailment and Goal Persistence in Response to Honor Threats
In honor cultures, maintaining a positive moral reputation (e.g., being known as an honest person) is highly important, whereas in dignity cultures, self-respect (e.g., competence and success) is strongly emphasized. Depending on their cultural background, people respond differently to threats to these two dimensions of honor. In two studies, we examined the effects of morality-focused and competence-focused threats on people’s goal pursuit in tw…
Each one, teach one: Critical history as counterstories, antiracist affordances, and cues for belonging
Recently, there have been several calls for psychologists to dismantle systemic racism within the field (e.g., Buchanan et al., 2021; Dupree & Boykin, 2021; Wilcox et al., 2022). In this article, we discuss why incorporating critical histories into psychology curricula can be beneficial to this effort. We focus on three potential pathways: critical histories provide counterstories that challenge racist narratives, critical histories promote conte…
Shifting systems of racial inequity: Applying critical race psychology to advance racial justice
Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a renewed and more mainstream attention to systemic racism emerged. Critical Race Theory (CRT) has permeated the larger public discourse around race more than ever before. Yet, social, scientific, and political backlash intended to silence conversations about the systemic and power‐driven nature of racism have also characterized these years. 30+ years have passed since CRT's introduction as a critical ana…
Focusing the critical race psychology lens: CRT and the psychological study of social issues
The years since George Floyd's murder in 2020 have been characterized by both a renewed attention to systemic racism and a backlash intended to silence conversations about race. Critical Race Theory (CRT), in particular, has become a larger part of the public discourse around race than ever before. Although CRT developed in the 1980s as a critical approach in legal studies and was incorporated into social psychology in the 1990s, psychology's eng…
Lay-theories reflect, reproduce, deny, and acknowledge racism: Explaining Covid-19 racial health disparities in the United States
Lay-theories are sets of interconnected ideas people use to understand and explain their worlds. We used a reflexive thematic analysis to investigate participant-generated lay-beliefs about COVID-19 disparities between White and Black communities ( N = 150) and between White and Latinx communities ( N = 145) in the United States. Informed by Critical Race Psychology perspectives, we discuss how racism is reflected and reproduced in lay-beliefs ab…
Geopolitical Roots and Branches: Identity Label Preferences Among People of African Descent in the United States
In the United States, people of African descent have historically used different labels to express their collective racial identities. Scholars have traced these historical changes over time, which have shifted for various reasons, across different political and social movements, and with changing group dynamics. The purpose of this study was to examine contemporary racial identity label preferences among people of African descent living in the U…
Perceptions of racism in voter suppression: Testing the Marley hypothesis and a brief educational intervention
The current research tests the Marley hypothesis—the role of historical knowledge as a mediator between racial group differences and perceptions of racism—in the context of voter suppression. In Study 1 ( N = 205), Black and White participants completed a voting rights history test, racial identification measures, and perceptions of racism items in the context of voter suppression. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that when racial identity w…
Psychology (19 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Gender Studies (16 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Racism (14 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (14 works) · Political science (12 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (9 works)