Race in Social Psychology Textbooks

Race is a socially constructed category based on perceived physical differences between groups of people, such as skin colour. Given the re-emergence of scientific racism, in which race is treated as a biological construct used to justify inequality, it is crucial that psychology texts accurately address the concept of race. Prior research examining scientific and introductory psychology textbooks has found that definitions and discussions involving race are often absent, or framed in biological terms, with biological definitions appearing in up to 40% of texts (Umer et al., 2024). However, within psychology, no such analyses have examined social psychology textbooks specifically. This study addressed that gap by exploring how social psychology textbooks define and discuss the construct of race. The research questions were as follows: (i) do social psychology textbooks define race? If so, how is it defined (biological, social, or unclear)? and (ii) how is race discussed in relation to intelligence? (a topic historically linked to scientific racism in psychology). Thirty English language social psychology textbooks published between 1990 and 2019 were analysed using a content analysis framework. Across the sample, only 30% of textbooks defined race, with nearly all of these adopting social definitions. Discussions of racial differences in intelligence appeared in 56.7% of textbooks, the majority framing such differences in social rather than biological terms. Overall, while social psychology textbooks appear to represent race more accurately than earlier scientific or introductory psychology texts, the low rate of definitional clarity suggests an ongoing disciplinary ambivalence. Such silence risks re-biologicalizing race by implication, and leaving space for outdated assumptions to persist. Future research should explore why social psychology appears more consistent in framing race socially, and how these improvements can inform antiracist teaching and scholarship within the discipline.