Browsing by Author "Mackenna, Bernardo"

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    Intergroup relations affect depressive symptoms of Indigenous people: Longitudinal evidence
    (2023) Zagefka, Hanna; Gonzalez, Roberto; Mackenna, Bernardo; Castro, Diego; Carozzi, Pia; Pairican, Fernando
    One thousand eight hundred thirty-five individuals who self-identified as Indigenous (with Mapuche being the largest group) participated in a two-wave longitudinal survey conducted in Chile with an 18 months lag. This was an approximately nationally representative sample of residents from culturally diverse communities. The aim of the study was to identify protective and adverse factors that are related to the development of depressive symptoms in Indigenous people. It was hypothesized that perceived social support would be negatively related to the development of depressive symptoms and that perceived discrimination would be positively associated with depressive symptoms, so that being on the receiving end of discrimination would make the manifestation of depressive symptoms more likely. Social support and perceived discrimination were themselves predicted to be affected by acculturation preferences and skin pigmentation. It was hypothesized that a positive acculturation orientation towards both the Indigenous group and members of non-Indigenous majority society would be associated with more perceived social support. Hence, preference for culture maintenance and preference for cross-group contact were expected to be positively related to social support. Further, it was hypothesized that darker skin pigmentation would be associated with more experiences of discrimination. Taken together, two processes were expected to affect depressive symptomatology: a protective effect of acculturation preferences mediated by social support and a deleterious effect of pigmentation mediated by experiences of discrimination. Results confirmed the predictions cross-sectionally but longitudinal effects were only found for the deleterious effect of pigmentation; the protective effect of acculturation preferences was notably weaker over time. These findings have both theoretical and applied implications.
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    Who Differentiates by Skin Color? Status Attributions and Skin Pigmentation in Chile
    (2019) Torres, Fernanda; Salgado, Mauricio; Mackenna, Bernardo; Nunez, Javier
    A growing body of research has shown that phenotypes and skin pigmentation play a fundamental role in stratification dynamics in Latin American countries. However, the relevance of skin color on status attribution for different status groups has been little studied in the region. This article seeks to broaden the research on phenotypic status cues using Chile as a context for analysis - a Latin American country with a narrow although continuous spectrum of skin tones, marked status differences, and a mostly white elite. We draw on status construction theory to hypothesize that skin pigmentation in Chile has become a status cue, although its heuristic relevance could differ across status groups. Using visual stimuli and a repeated measure design, we studied this relationship and tested whether the use of skin pigmentation as a status cue is conditional upon the status of those categorizing others. The results reveal that participants attribute, on average, lower status to others of darker skin. Besides, skin pigmentation has a conditional effect on the social status of participants: whereas skin pigmentation does not work as a status cue for lower status participants, it is an important status marker for the categorizations that middle and especially higher status participants perform. The phenotypic composition of reference groups of low- and highstatus individuals and system justification are discussed as potential explanations for these results.