Membership has its privileges: When Black people afford Black–White Biracial people the benefit of the doubt.

OBJECTIVES: The current research investigates whether Black people afford Biracial people the benefit of the doubt when using a stereotype to describe a Black person, and the role that racial self-identification plays in this process. METHOD: Black participants were asked to form an impression of a target who either applied the "late" stereotype to describe a Black person or did not. The primary dependent variables were participants' perception of the target as prejudiced and their interest in befriending the target. We also measured participants' perceptions of the target's racial group membership and their perceptions of how the target racially self-identified. In Study 1, we manipulated the target's race (Black, Biracial, or White) and whether he used the stereotype. In Study 2, we manipulated how a Black-White Biracial target racially self-identified (Black-identified, Biracial-identified, or White-identified). RESULTS: In Study 1, when using the late stereotype, participants perceived the White target to be more prejudiced and were less interested in befriending the target than either the Black or Biracial targets. Participants perceived the Biracial target as more prejudiced, and they were less interested in befriending the Biracial target than the Black target. Perceived racial self-identification mediated this effect. In Study 2, participants perceived the Black-identified and the Biracial-identified targets as less prejudiced than the White-identified target and were less interested in befriending that person. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that Black people are likely to grant Biracial people the benefit of the doubt if they perceive that they self-identify as a racial ingroup member. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).