From the Washington Redskins to the Kansas City Chiefs , numerous professional sports teams use American Native American mascot and Word , raising serious questions ofcultural appropriationand respect . Those oppose to the practice say that the team ' utilization of such logos plays on negative stereotypes , violates civil and noetic rights , and diminishes cultural traditions . Supporters tend to hold up custom as a basis for not vacate the mascots , and say such employment honors Native Americans .
Ina new studypublished in the Journal of Consumer Psychology , a team of researchers from the University of Montana , University of Washington and Washington State University decided to essay what impact viewing these mascots and logo based on ethnicity actually makes . The scientists also hold into account political lean .
" We jell out to study whether or not the purpose of American Indian brand imagination increases stereotype notion in the broader population , a title that has been made many times but never through empirical observation test , " order Justin Angle , the study ’s lead author ina imperativeness releaseaccompanying the publication . Angle is an assistant professor in the UM School of Business .
Two laboratory experiments and one field of honor study calculate at related issues . The two laboratory - based experiments exposed participants identify as politically more liberal or more conservative to ethnically based blade imaging . The researchers wanted to see what impingement the brands would have on stereotype both supposedly negative ( " Indians are militant " ) and convinced ( " Indians are noble " ) , and whether political lean had any influence .
Looking at logotype had no evident impact on whether Conservative changed their perception of Native Americans , but viewing cultural logotype made progressive more likely to tie in with the damaging " warlike " stereotype , and less likely to associate with the positive " noble " one .
While this may seem counterintuitive , Angle say , it ’s " consistent with past enquiry showing that liberal tend to have more malleable universe views and are therefore sometimes more raw to contextual cues . "
The lab study also found that adding words to a logo can have a prescribed impact — liberalist who encounter a play logotype with an accompanying phrase " We Are Noble , We Are peaceable , We Compete with Honor ! " had a more positivistic view of Native Americans . This suggests , articulate Angle , that the argument that logos honour Native Americans expect trivial weight , and that circumstance — specifically , schoolbook - based slogans — is the in effect way to increase positive connexion . " These effect flunk to support the common argument that pic to ethnic firebrand imagery automatically improves reception to the ethnical group , " says Angle .
A separate field study first identified levels of offensiveness in nine unlike play logos : Baseball ’s Cleveland Indians rated most offensive , and the Atlanta Braves least . And for comparing , they sampled residents in Detroit and Miami , two exchangeable markets that instead have fauna - themed franchises ( the Tigers and the Marlins ) .
After controlling for factors including backwash , gender , familiarity with Native Americans and team fandom , the work found that exposure to a " more disconfirming ethnic logotype " significantly strengthened disconfirming stereotype among liberals , while exposure to the " less negatively charged logo " did not significantly influence negative stereotypes at any tier of political identity .
" This result , " pronounce Angle , " is perhaps the first demonstration of the untoward gist of exposure to heathen brand imagery — specifically American Indian sports mascots — in the broader universe . "
