Prejudice targets’ vigilance may be accurate perception rather than hypersensitivity.

Evidence

In summary, rudiments of Allport’s idea that targets of prejudice are anxious about and alert for signs of prejudice in others can be found in contemporary theory and research on stereotype threat and attributional ambiguity. His belief that targets of prejudice become obsessively concerned with and hypersensitive to prejudice has received less support. Evidence of individual differences in chronic concerns about being a target of prejudice, however, suggests that some individuals may display the “obsessive concern” and vigilance that Allport described. Whether these individuals are “hypersensitive” to prejudice, or merely “accurate” perceivers of prejudice, however, is difficult to disentangle. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 950

Categorization

• QUESTION: The hypersensitive vs. accurate-perceiver distinction is a genuinely open empirical question worth chasing across the stigmatized-group perception literature.