Behavioral descriptions pretested for racial stereotypicality and valence: Data from an American and a Portuguese sample

In social psychology research, there are several kinds of stereotypical materials that can be used – faces, videos, lists of words, attributes. However, when it comes to behavioral sentences, there is a lack of pre-tested racial stimuli available in the literature. To fill the gap, this paper provides two lists of 154 short behavioral sentences, with stereotypicality (white to black) and valence (negative to positive) ratings. The first list was pre-tested with an American sample (Study 1), while the second list was pre-tested with a European Portuguese sample (Study 2). Importantly, this paper focuses on the broader meaning of black stereotypes’ and not just the narrower definition of the African American stereotype, whose differences are discussed. T-tests identified 73 and 118 stereotypical behavioral descriptions, for future use, respectively for the American and European Portuguese samples. Additional comparisons within and between samples are also provided. Full behavioral descriptions, along with pertinent statistical data, are available to the reader, as a useful working instrument for future research.