Is “being white” a component of the superhero prototype? Perhaps, but research participants won’t tell you that

Purpose Racial and ethnic minorities have long been underrepresented in the superhero genre. Empirical examination of the effects of this underrepresentation, however, has been limited. The purpose of this research was to identify if “being White” is a component of the superhero prototype. Design/methodology/approach Across three different studies, participants recruited through CloudResearch’s Connect platform and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk viewed different versions of comic panel compilations and responded to questions about their perceptions of characters shown in the panels. Findings When using measurements similar to those typically used to test for prototypicality, we found no evidence that “being White” is a component of the superhero prototype. However, when using less conspicuous questions, we found that participants exposed to a not-White character were more likely to recall the character’s race and correctly identify the purpose of the research, providing some indication that “being White” is a component of the superhero prototype. Our findings suggest that when studying race, researchers may need to transition from traditional experimental designs to less conspicuous methods. Originality/value In a time where research on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has been confounded by social desirability bias, our findings demonstrate how researchers can use less conspicuous methods within traditional survey methodology to examine DEI questions.