Celebrating While Black: NFL Quarterbacks Perceived as Representing Black Culture are

Judged as More Arrogant

Jonathan C. Corbin

Duke University

Anthony L. Burrow

Cornell University

Author Note

Jonathan C. Corbin is a Senior Behavioral Researcher at the Center for Advanced

Hindsight at Duke University

Anthony L. Burrow is an assistant professor in the Department of Human

Development at Cornell University. His research explores the significance of purpose in life among youth as well as the daily experiences and adjustment of ethnic minority populations.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to [email protected].

We thank Bert Clere and Dylan T. Vavra for their assistance in editing this manuscript. 2 Running head: Celebrating While Black

Abstract

Prior work has shown that confident behavior from Black individuals can be unfairly interpreted as arrogance (the “hubris penalty”). In two studies, we test predictions that the more NFL quarterbacks (QBs) are seen as representing Black culture, the more arrogant they will be judged. In Study 1, Black QBs were rated as more arrogant than White QBs on average, and Black and White QBs who were judged as more representative of Black culture were rated as more arrogant. Study

2 showed that viewing a QB celebrating increased perceptions of arrogance and led participants to see celebrating as less appropriate when the QB was Black. Findings are consistent with social dominance theory, such that QBs perceived as

“representing Blackness” are disproportionately penalized for behaving confidently.

Data can be found at https://osf.io/6snad/. 3 Running head: Celebrating While Black

After the Carolina Panthers played the Tennessee Titans in Week 10 of the

2015 National Football League (NFL) season, a mother sent a letter to a prominent

Charlotte, NC newspaper complaining that the team’s Quarterback (QB), Cam

Newton modeled “egotism, arrogance and poor sportsmanship” for her daughter with his dancing and celebrations after making good plays (Plorin, 2015). This letter garnered a large reaction across sports media, igniting discussions about the appropriateness of celebrating in professional sports. Two weeks later, in reference to a celebration in a Week 12 game by Travis Kelce (a tight end for the Kansas City

Chiefs), ESPN’s SportsCenter news anchor Robert Flores said, "I'm wondering why there's no letters to the editor or why First Take's [another ESPN Network show] not doing 'Should Travis Kelce be dancing in the end zone?’ … Oh, because he's not

Black. That's probably what it is." (Popper, 2015).

Research suggests that Flores’ observation is not without merit. According to social dominance theory, historically low status individuals who reach high status positions inherently increase social tension, and thus face higher levels of scrutiny as compared to those who are expected to fill such roles (Kraus & Keltner, 2009;

Sidanius & Pratto, 1999; examples of historically low status individuals include racial and ethnic minorities, women, gender minorities, and low-income individuals.) Hall and Livingston (2011) labeled the disproportionate punishment of Black athletes for celebrating the “hubris penalty”. These researchers found support for the hypothesis that Black football players are disproportionately punished for celebrations as compared to White players. In three experiments, they gave participants vignettes that manipulated whether a hypothetical athlete 4 Running head: Celebrating While Black celebrated after a play and the perceived race of that player. They found that when participants were asked how much of a monetary bonus to give a player for a great play, Black players who celebrated were given significantly less than Black players who did not celebrate. There was no difference between celebration conditions for

White players. It is also noteworthy that, although there was no difference with respect to ratings of arrogance between Black and White players in general, compensation amount was significantly negatively correlated with arrogance ratings only for Black players. Additionally, Volz (2015) showed that Black QBs were more likely to be benched (though less so in cities with larger Black populations), despite the fact that team performance actually improved more when

White QBs were benched.

Whereas Hall and Livingston (2011) focused on differences between races, it might also be the case that Black individuals who are perceived as “more stereotypically Black” may face harsher judgment. Indeed, suggestive evidence for this possibility has emerged in studies conducted in legal settings. For example, when police officers were asked to judge the perceived criminality of faces, they judged Black faces as higher in criminality than White faces, but also judged faces rated as more stereotypically Black higher in criminality than faces that were rated as less stereotypically Black (Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie, & Davies, 2004). Furthermore, individuals rated as having a more stereotypically Black appearance were also shown to receive harsher prison sentences (Blair, Judd, & Chapleau, 2004), and be more likely to have received the death penalty in crimes involving White victims

(Eberhardt, Davies, Purdie-Vaughns, & Johnson, 2006). 5 Running head: Celebrating While Black Whereas the prior studies focused on how stereotypicality of appearance influences judgments, studies have also shown that attitudes can influence ratings of stereotypicality. For example, Caruso, Mead, and Balcetis (2009) found that when supporters and opponents of President Barack Obama were asked to judge pictures varying the darkness of his skin tone, supporters chose lighter pictures whereas opponents chose darker pictures. In other words, the features themselves were interpreted in light of participants’ opinions regarding the President. Similarly, priming participants with scarcity-related concepts led participants to perceive mixed-race faces as more stereotypically Black as compared to those in a control condition (Krosch & Amodio, 2014).

These results suggest that there is something about perceptions of

“Blackness” in general that is being expressed through responses to visual information in these studies. Stereotypical features may provide stronger cues for an individual’s stereotypes about what it means to be Black. Rather than rely on physical features, the current study uses a new item that seeks to capture individual’s stereotypes about Black individuals, which asks to what extent they see a particular individual as representing Black Culture today (Black Culture

Representativeness (BCR)).

The current study examines perceptions of arrogance for current White and

Black NFL QBs (as of the end of the 2015 NFL season when this study was conducted), as well as how the extent to which QB’s are perceived as representing

Black culture (i.e., Black Culture Representativeness) relates to perceptions of arrogance. Given the results reported by Hall and Livingston (2010), who found no 6 Running head: Celebrating While Black difference between arrogance ratings of Black and White hypothetical QBs, we expect to see similar results in Study 1. However, given prior work showing that those who matched racial stereotypes were judged more harshly (Eberhardt et al.,

2004), we predict a positive dependency between arrogance ratings and ratings of

BCR for Black QBs. In Study 2, we determine whether the hubris penalty influences perceptions of arrogance for Black versus White QBs who are celebrating. Here, we predict that Black QBs will be judged as more arrogant when celebrating as compared to when they are not (with no such difference for White QBs). Finally, we examine whether viewing a Black versus White QB affects beliefs regarding the appropriateness of celebrating good plays, and predict that seeing a Black QB celebrating will lead to more negative views of celebration compared to a White QB.

Study 1

Method

Participants

A total of 180 participants were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical

Turk and paid $0.25 (sample size allowed for detection of small effect sizes (e.g., r

= .2 at alpha = .05 and power = .80) while keeping the budget at approximately $50).

The sample was 67.22% male, with a mean age of 34.3 (SD = 10.36). They were

80% White; 7.8% African-American; 8.6% Asian; 1.7% Native American/Alaskan

Native, and 2.2% opted to not indicate their race. A total of 10.5% of the sample was of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. All participants consented to participate in this study and indicated that they were at least 18-years-old. Data for both studies can be found at https://osf.io/6snad/. 7 Running head: Celebrating While Black Materials and Procedure

To begin the experiment, participants were shown eight NFL QBs’ names, one at a time, and were asked to label each QB as Black or White (with a button press) as quickly as possible while maintaining accuracy. The QBs shown were Cam Newton,

Jameis Winston, Teddy Bridgewater, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers,

Kirk Cousins, and A.J. McCarron (the first four are Black, the last four are White). To maximize familiarity with the chosen QBs, only starting QBs were chosen who had also played in the playoffs during the 2014-2015 season. Next, participants rated each QB on how talented they thought they were (Talent) and how much they liked the player (Likeability) on scales ranging from 1 – Not at All to 7 – A Lot. Next, they rated each QB on how arrogant they thought the QB was (Arrogance) from 1 –Not at

All to 7 – Extremely, followed by a rating of familiarity using the same scale markers as arrogance. Then, participants were asked to label which team each QB played for in the 2015-2016 National Football League (NFL) season (to assess participants’ knowledge about each QB in addition to rating familiarity), and were also asked to name their favorite team. Finally, participants rated the QBs on the following question – “In your opinion, to what degree does each football player reflect your perception of Black culture today?” (Black Culture) –on a scale from 1 – Not at all

Reflective to 7 – Extremely Reflective (see Table 1 for descriptives). After this question, we collected participant demographics and asked them to name the teams who won the Superbowl games in 2014 and 2016 (assessing knowledge about NFL football). This covers all measures, manipulations, and exclusions that were in the study. 8 Running head: Celebrating While Black Tables

Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for Response Items for Each Player Player Arroga Black Likeabi Talent Familiar Correct N nce Culture lity ity Team

Cam 5.75 4.84 4.18 6.11 6.05 0.88 130 Newton (1.31) (1.87) (1.92) (1.04) (1.61) (0.33)

Jameis 4.50 4.17 3.55 4.64 4.15 0.53 155 Winston (1.59) (1.92) (1.49) (1.23) (2.21) (0.50)

Russell 3.50 3.66 4.62 5.64 5.21 0.75 143 Wilson (1.60) (1.79) (1.72) (1.10) (2.19) (0.44)

Teddy 3.29 3.72 4.13 4.49 4.50 0.63 119 Bridgewater (1.36) (1.78) (1.32) (1.19) (2.15) (0.48)

Tom 5.27 1.64 3.95 6.36 6.13 0.86 174 Brady (1.62) (1.34) (2.15) (1.05) (1.54) (0.35)

Aaron 3.88 1.76 4.84 6.10 5.63 0.82 157 Rodgers (1.59) (1.35) (1.72) (1.08) (1.92) (0.39)

Kirk 3.68 2.01 3.89 4.42 4.28 0.56 139 Cousins (1.41) (1.48) (1.47) (1.15) (2.23) (0.50)

A.J. McCarron 3.24 1.90 3.74 3.97 4.02 0.49 108 (1.35) (1.33) (1.35) (1.20) (1.95) (0.50) Note. SDs are in parentheses. N reflects responses that correctly identified race of the player (out of 180). Only responses that correctly identified race were analyzed.

Results and Discussion

To first determine whether there were overall differences between Black and

White QBs with regards to arrogance ratings, we ran a linear mixed-effects model with Race of the athlete predicting Arrogance ratings, controlling for Likeability,

Talent, and Familiarity ratings. We also excluded responses for which participants chose the incorrect race for a player (76% of responses were correct for Black players, 80% for White players). All analyses were conducted using the R software package (R Core Team, 2012), and linear mixed-effects models were conducted using the lme4 (Bates, Maechler, Bolker, & Walker, 2015) and lmertest (Kuznetsova, 9 Running head: Celebrating While Black Brockhoff, & Christensen, 2016) R packages. As shown in Table 2, Race was a significant predictor of arrogance (controlling for talent, likeability, and familiarity

ratings), with Black players being rated as more arrogant than White players (MBlack

= 4.38, SE = .09, 95% CI [4.20, 4.56]; MWhite = 4.12, SE = .09, 95% CI [3.95, 4.30], t(959.58) = 3.10, p = .002; df were estimated with Satterthwaite approximation).

Table 2. Predicting Arrogance for Black versus White QBs B (CI) std. Error std. Beta (CI) std. Error p

Fixed Effects 3.04 (Intercept) 0.20 <.001 (2.64 – 3.44) -0.25 -0.07 Race (White) 0.08 0.02 .002 (-0.42 – -0.09) (-0.12 – -0.03) 0.37 0.31 Talent 0.04 0.03 <.001 (0.30 – 0.45) (0.25 – 0.37) -0.37 -0.38 Likeability 0.03 0.03 <.001 (-0.43 – -0.32) (-0.43 – -0.32) 0.18 0.22 Familiarity 0.03 0.03 <.001 (0.12 – 0.23) (0.15 – 0.29)

Random Effects σ2 1.836

τ00, Participant 0.812

ICCParticipant 0.307

2 2 R / Ω0 .472 / .456 Note. N = 180. Table built using sjPlot (Lüdecke, 2017).

Black Culture Representativeness and Ratings of Arrogance

Next, we analyzed whether participants rated Black QBs whom they perceived as more representative of Black culture as more arrogant. We began with analyzing only Black QBs. The distribution of BCR for Black QBs was approximately normal for the Black QBs and was reliable (Cronbach’s α = .88). Alternatively, the 10 Running head: Celebrating While Black distribution for White QBs indicated a floor effect (the variable for White QBs also indicated high reliability, α = .95; see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Bar plot visualizing distributions of BCR responses for Black and White QBs. Plotted with ggplot2 (Wickham, 2009).

A linear mixed-effects model with BCR predicting arrogance (controlling for talent, likeability, and familiarity ratings) confirmed that higher ratings of BCR were associated with higher arrogance ratings (see Table 3). We then repeated the analysis for White QBs. The analysis revealed a positive relationship between BCR ratings and Arrogance for White QBs as well (see Table 3 and see figure 2 for slopes broken down by race and individual QB). It is worth noting that given the small number of observations at the high ends of BCR for White QBs, this effect should be interpreted lightly.

11 Running head: Celebrating While Black Table 3. Black Culture Representativeness Predicting Arrogance for Black and White Players in Separate Models Black QBs White QBs

std. std. B (95% std. Beta std. B (95% std. Beta std. p p CI) Error (95% Error CI) Error (95% Error CI) CI)

Fixed Effects 2.32 2.27 (Intercep <.00 <.00 (1.71 – 0.31 (1.71 – 0.28 t) 1 1 2.94) 2.83) 0.35 0.38 0.11 0.09 <.00 Culture (0.27 – 0.04 (0.30 – 0.04 (0.00 – 0.05 (0.00 – 0.04 .046 1 0.43) 0.46) 0.22) 0.17) 0.34 0.26 0.41 0.36 <.00 <.00 Talent (0.23 – 0.06 (0.17 – 0.04 (0.32 – 0.05 (0.28 – 0.04 1 1 0.45) 0.34) 0.50) 0.44) -0.37 -0.31 -0.36 -0.33 Likeabilit (-0.46 <.00 (-0.39 <.00 0.04 (-0.44 – 0.04 0.04 (-0.41 – 0.04 y – - 1 – - 1 -0.28) -0.25) 0.29) 0.24) 0.06 0.07 0.15 0.18 Familiarit <.00 (-0.02 0.04 (-0.02 – 0.05 .121 (0.08 – 0.04 (0.10 – 0.05 y 1 – 0.13) 0.16) 0.22) 0.27) Random Effects σ2 1.815 1.699

τ00, Participant 0.656 0.739

ICCParticipant 0.265 0.303

2 2 R / Ω0 .540 / .509 .552 / .516 Note. N = 179 for the first model and N = 180 for the second. Table built using sjPlot (Lüdecke, 2017). *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001 12 Running head: Celebrating While Black

Figure 2. Linear fits for relationship between Black Culture Representativeness and Arrogance ratings for each QB individually, as well as for the average across QBs, as denoted by the dotted blue lines. Also displayed are the raw responses for each player (jittered on the x-axis). Black Culture Representativeness was rated from 1 (Not at All Representative) to 7 (Extremely Representative). Plotted with ggplot2 (Wickham, 2009).

Study 2

In Study 1, we found that Black QBs were perceived as more arrogant on average compared to White QBs. Furthermore, higher ratings of Black Culture

Representativeness predicted higher arrogance ratings for QBs (particularly Black

QBs). These relationships persisted when controlling for a number of relevant factors such as likeability, talent, and familiarity. In Study 2, we experimentally examined whether Black QBs suffered a hubris penalty in terms of perceptions of arrogance. Specifically, we showed participants photos of QBs either celebrating or not and had them rate the QBs on the same qualities as in Experiment 1, with the expectation that the Black QB would be judged as more arrogant when the picture was celebratory. Additionally, we added a rating of White Culture

Representativeness (WCR) to determine the role it might play in ratings of 13 Running head: Celebrating While Black arrogance. Finally, we sought to determine the role of race on participants’ attitudes toward the appropriateness of celebration. In other words, did attitudes toward celebration become more negative when the individual celebrating was Black?

Method

Participants

We recruited 328 participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk who were paid $0.25 (we aimed for approximately 40 participants per cell of our 2x2x2 design). Two participants were dropped, one due to not completing the task, and the other filled in identical answers for every ratings question, leaving the sample size at 326. The sample was 59% male and had an average age of 37.48 (SD =

11.99). A total of 85% of participants were White, 7.2% Asian, 5.8% Black, 2.8%

Native American/Alaskan Native, 0.3% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 0.3% opted out of answering (1.2% chose both Black/White, 0.9% Asian/White, 0.6%

Native American/White, and 0.3% Asian/Hawaiian). A total of 10% were of

Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. All participants were 18-years-old or older and consented to participate.

Materials and Procedure

Study 2 consisted of two separate phases. In the first phase, participants were shown pictures of Kirk Cousins and Teddy Bridgewater either in a celebratory pose (Celebration) or as they were throwing a football (No Celebration) (See https://goo.gl/5pPUlU for Bridgewater celebration photo, https://goo.gl/XxERLs for Bridgewater Non-Celebration, https://goo.gl/lvBsc2 for Cousins celebration photo, and https://goo.gl/vIu75R for Cousins throwing. All images were sized to be 14 Running head: Celebrating While Black approximately identical.) Both celebratory poses involved the QBs shown with their arms outstretched, both were wearing their uniforms and helmets, and both were smiling. These QBs were selected because they were relatively similar on ratings of likeability (t(97) = 1.75, p = .08, d = 0.18), talent (t(97) = 0.72, p = .47, d = 0.07), and familiarity (t(179) = .48, p = .63, d = 0.05) in Experiment 1. Cousins was rated as significantly more arrogant than Bridgewater (t(179) = 2.98, p = .004, d = 0.30), but given that the comparison of interest is between celebration and non-celebration pictures for each QB, this difference is inconsequential (and serves as a more conservative test of our hypothesis, by picking a Black QB who is seen as comparatively modest). Each QB was shown separately, and the presentation order was randomized for a Bridgewater Celebrate (Yes, No) X Cousins Celebrate (Yes, No)

X Order (Bridgewater First, Cousins First) factorial design. Above each picture, participants were given information about each athlete (e.g., “Teddy Bridgewater is the Quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings”). Underneath each picture, participants rated each QB on the same scales used in Experiment 1 (Arrogant, Talent,

Likeability, Familiarity, Black Culture) as well as a new question that asked them to rate each QB on how reflective they were of White culture (the wording was identical to the Black Culture question).

Phase 2 of this experiment was concerned with the effect of seeing a Black versus White QB celebrating on attitudes toward celebration in football.

Participants were either shown a picture of Cam Newton or Aaron Rodgers celebrating a first down (in football, teams get 4 tries, or “downs”, to go ten yards, and if they make it ten yards, this is called a first down, and they begin again; See 15 Running head: Celebrating While Black https://goo.gl/M0EL36 for Newton celebration photo and https://goo.gl/8YBqJJ for

Rodgers celebration photo.). Both photos showed the QBs making the exact same celebratory pose, with both hands pointing forward. Underneath the picture, participants were asked to rate how appropriate they viewed the first-down celebration on a scale from 1 – Not at All Appropriate to 7 – Extremely Appropriate and they were also asked to rate how appropriate they thought it was to celebrate “a good play” on the same scale. After Phase 2 was complete, participants completed demographics, and answered a number of football-related questions, such as whom their favorite player and team were, who won the 2014 and 2016 Superbowls, and how often they watched football during the year. This covers all measures, manipulations, and exclusions that were in the study.

Results and Discussion

First, we conducted two regression models similar to Experiment 1 to see if the effects of Black Culture ratings on the perception of Arrogance replicated (see

Table 4 for descriptive statistics).

Table 4. Means and Standard Deviations for Response Items for Each Player Player Arrogance Black White Likea Talent Familiarit Culture Culture bility y

Teddy 3.45 4.28 2.22 4.30 5.12 3.81 Bridgewater (1.39) (1.47) (1.26) (1.24) (1.54) (2.06)

Kirk Cousins 3.55 1.93 4.61 4.12 4.89 4.05 (1.33) (1.28) (1.40) (1.33) (1.24) (2.04)

Comparison t(325) = - t(325) = t(325) = - t(325) = t(325) = t(325) = - 1.81, p 21.35, p < 23.31, p 2.26, p 2.26, p 3.08, p = .24 .001 < .001 = .025 < .001 = .002 Note. SDs are in parentheses. 16 Running head: Celebrating While Black As shown in Table 5, we replicated the positive relationship between BCR and arrogance ratings for Teddy Bridgewater. We then repeated the analysis for Kirk

Cousins, finding a smaller, but still significant effect of BCR (Table 5). Whereas both

Bridgewater and Cousins showed a significant negative relationship between likeability and arrogance ratings, the analyses only revealed a significant negative relationship between talent and arrogance for Cousins.

Table 5. Black & White Culture Representativeness Predicting Arrogance for Bridgewater and Cousins in Separate Regressions Bridgewater Cousins

std. std. B std. std. B std. std. Beta Beta (95% Erro Erro p (95% Erro Erro p (95% (95% CI) r r CI) r r CI) CI)

3.59 4.95 <.00 <.00 (Intercept) (2.75 – 0.43 (4.21 – 0.37 1 1 4.44) 5.68) Black 0.25 0.27 0.15 0.14 <.00 Culture (0.15 – 0.05 (0.16 – 0.05 (0.04 – 0.06 (0.04 – 0.05 .009 1 Rep 0.35) 0.37) 0.26) 0.25) White 0.10 0.09 0.00 0.00 Culture (-0.02 0.06 (-0.02 – 0.05 .102 (-0.10 0.05 (-0.11 – 0.06 .946 Rep – 0.21) 0.19) – 0.11) 0.11) -0.16 0.01 0.01 -0.15 (-0.29 Talent (-0.13 0.07 (-0.11 – 0.06 .907 0.07 (-0.27 – 0.06 .018 – - – 0.15) 0.12) -0.03) 0.03) -0.29 -0.21 -0.26 -0.21 (-0.43 <.00 (-0.34 Likeability 0.07 (-0.38 – 0.06 0.07 (-0.34 – 0.07 .002 – - 1 – - -0.14) -0.08) 0.16) 0.08) -0.05 -0.08 -0.02 -0.03 Familiarity (-0.13 0.04 (-0.19 – 0.05 .140 (-0.09 0.04 (-0.14 – 0.06 .600 – 0.02) 0.03) – 0.05) 0.08)

R2 / adj. R2 .148 / .134 .116 / .102 Note. N = 326. Table built using sjPlot (Lüdecke, 2017). 17 Running head: Celebrating While Black Next we examined the influence of the photo (Celebratory vs. Non-

Celebratory) on arrogance ratings of each QB. For this, we ran a Bridgewater

Celebrate (Yes, No) X Cousins Celebrate (Yes, No) X Order (Bridgewater First,

Cousins First) X Player (Bridgewater, Cousins) linear mixed-effects model predicting arrogance ratings including participant as a random effect. The first three factors were between-participants and the last one was within (meaning that all subjects made ratings of both players). The analysis of interest revealed a non-significant interaction between Bridgewater Celebrate and Player (F(1, 326) = 3.73, p = .054), with higher ratings for Bridgewater when his photo was celebratory than when it

was not celebratory (MBridgewaterCelebrate = 3.60, SE = .11, 95% CI [3.39, 3.81];

MBridgewaterNoCelebrate = 3.34, SE = 0.11, 95% CI [3.12, 3.55]; t(577.36) = 1.74, p = 0.083, dr

= .24). Also, when Bridgewater’s non-celebration photo was shown, his arrogance

ratings were lower than Cousins, (MCousinsNoCelebrate = 3.59, SE = .11, 95% CI [3.37, 3.80];

t(326) = 2.05, p = .041, dr = .23), which is in line with the arrogance rating results from Study 1. However, when his celebration photo was shown, his arrogance

ratings rose to the level of Cousins (MCousinsCelebrate = 3.52, SE = .11, 95% CI [3.31, 3.73];

t(326) = 0.67, p = .50, dr = 0.07).

Effect of Race on Attitudes Toward Celebrations

In Phase 2 of the study, participants were either shown a photo of Cam

Newton celebrating a first down, or Aaron Rodgers doing the identical celebration.

We then asked them to rate the appropriateness of the first-down celebration as well as the appropriateness of celebrations “after a good play”. Both measures were

highly correlated (MFirstDown = 5.38 (SD = 1.58), MGeneral = 5.58 (SD = 1.48); r(324) = 18 Running head: Celebrating While Black 0.84, p < .001), so we combined both measures in to a single “Appropriateness” measure (recall that higher ratings for this measure indicate that the behavior was judged as more appropriate). The overall ratings of Appropriateness were significantly lower when the photo showed Cam Newton celebrating as compared to

Aaron Rodgers performing the identical celebration (MNewton = 5.33, SD = 1.52; MRodgers

= 5.67, SD = 5.67; Welch’s t(319.41) = 2.14, p = 0.03, d = 0.24).

Discussion

These studies represent an initial attempt to understand the dynamics underlying the relationship between race and perceptions of arrogance not only by examining racial differences across Black versus White stimuli, but also by examining participants’ views on how reflective each QB was of Black or White culture in general. Results supported the hypothesis that those seen as more reflective of Black culture would be seen as more arrogant. This effect was found for both Black and White QBs (though was much more prevalent for Black QBs). These results do not suggest that any given Black QB will be seen as more arrogant than any given White QB (our own data show that Tom Brady had the 2nd highest arrogance rating out of all the QBs in Experiment 1), but that perceptions of Black

QB’s arrogance in particular are adversely tied to perceptions related to that QB’s race.

Study 2 replicated the effects of Study 1 and extended them with an experimental approach – finding that celebration led to greater arrogance ratings only for a Black QB (a hubris penalty). This result contrasts with those of Hall and

Livingston (2011), who found that both Black and White players were punished for 19 Running head: Celebrating While Black celebrating (though Black players received greater punishment). However, in our experiment, we presented participants with relatively benign photos of QBs celebrating (smiling with arms outstretched), whereas in Hall and Livingston’s study, the scenario involved a player receiving a penalty for excessive celebration. It is also important to note that, although effects largely went in the expected direction, effect sizes were very small and the relatively large p-values suggest that either a larger sample or a stronger manipulation is needed before this result should be considered reliable enough to make firm conclusions. Finally, in Study 2 we confirmed that when it was a Black QB celebrating, participants judged celebrating in general as less appropriate than when a White QB was shown doing the exact same celebration. In other words, when it is a Black QB, celebrating after a good play is no longer perceived as simply enjoying the game, but also becomes associated with arrogance. This suggests that simply seeing a Black QB celebrate may put people in a different frame of mind when evaluating the appropriateness of celebrations overall as compared to when a White QB celebrates.

Our study focused on actual NFL QBs who were playing in the 2015-2016

NFL season. While ecologically meaningful, there are methodological strengths and weaknesses to using actual players as stimuli, as opposed to hypothetical players.

Using hypothetical players allows for more rigorous experimental control (as in Hall

& Livingston, 2011). However, using actual players allows for a richer representation of the player when making judgments, increasing external validity

(of course, both methods are important and complementary.) Restricting the players to NFL QBs (as opposed to examining a wide variety of individuals in 20 Running head: Celebrating While Black different contexts) should reduce the influence of other possible influences

(increasing experimental control), however it also restricts generalizability. More work is needed to extend these results to other groups and contexts (e.g., women,

CEOs, politicians, community leaders, etc.). Furthermore, whereas the current study compared White and Black QBs and measured ratings of culture, a further test of social dominance theory would be to determine whether the arrogance – Black culture relationship held for only high status Black individuals when comparing them to low status Black individuals.

This study also raises questions as to how individuals are interpreting BCR, and why it positively relates to perceptions of arrogance. It is likely that ratings of

BCR are likely to cue different stereotypes depending on characteristics of the individual being asked (i.e., age, sex, race, implicit bias), and the context in which it is asked (sports, business, school, etc.). Varying these types of factors may help explain variability in participant’s ratings of this variable. This kind of work could be used in service of constructing a scale to better capture and refine this construct.

NFL quarterbacks are highly visible athletes (69% of the Associated Press’s

Most Valuable Player awards since 1957 have gone to QBs), and the position naturally attracts a large amount of scrutiny. Despite the fact that a majority of NFL players are Black (~67%), the QB position has generally been occupied by White players. During the past 15 years, the percentage of Black QBs has never been higher than 28%. Our results (in conjunction with prior work) suggest that Black

QBs may be subject to even greater scrutiny as their behavior is not only judged based on their position, but also by their race. Black QBs are likely aware of this, as 21 Running head: Celebrating While Black Warren Moon (a retired Black QB) said, “African-American quarterbacks get analyzed in ways that others don't” (Keown, 2016). These racial pressures could play a role in shaping Black QBs’ behaviors both on and off the field, influencing judgment as well as anxiety. 22 Running head: Celebrating While Black References

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