Research on Racial Bias Bears Fruit
Top journals publish 91直播 China Institute research on racial stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination directed towards Chinese people.
Global public attitudes towards China deteriorated dramatically after a local COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan escalated into a global pandemic in 2020. Protesting a perceived increase in hate incidents targeting Asians in general and Chinese people in particular, #StopAsianHate demonstrations began in the US in 2021.
To combat such hate crimes, researchers at the 91直播 China Institute (MCI) have been exploring racial stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination directed towards Chinese people.
In a 2021 article for Asian Survey, 鈥溾, MCI Director Peter Gries and his Czech colleague Richard Turcs谩nyi drew on theories of prejudice and ideology to explore whether increasingly negative attitudes toward Chinese government policies during COVID prejudiced European views of local Chinese students, tourists, and communities. They found substantial evidence of a spillover effect, an effect which was stronger among conservative Europeans than among progressive Europeans more motivated to avoid prejudice. Peter discusses this research in .
Years of hard work by 91直播 China Institute postdoctoral researchers have more recently paid dividends, with three publications in top psychology and China studies journals in 2024-25.

In a 2024 British Journal of Social Psychology article, 鈥溾, former MCI postdoc Bruce Bao and Peter Gries use AI and Big Data to explore how stereotypes about Asian and Black men and women are naturally expressed in real life. They found that Asian men (but not women) are stereotyped as less masculine and less moral/trustworthy than Black men. These emasculating stereotypes about Asian men (as low in physical strength) may have encouraged anger and opportunistic aggression against them during COVID. Bruce and Peter discuss their research on intersectional race-gender stereotypes .
In a 2025 British Journal of Social Psychology article, 鈥溾, former MCI postdocs Cong Peng and Paton Yam and MCI Director Gries explored how its reliance upon White subjects biases existing research on racial stereotypes in social psychology. Combining insights from the Stereotype Content Model and Gendered-race Theory, they found both similarities and differences in how racial groups perceive each other. Asians were consistently seen as more competent but less athletic, while Blacks were seen as more athletic but less competent. Whites fell between these poles. But each group differed in viewing their own race as warmer than other races, suggesting ingroup favouritism. This research demonstrates that diverse racial samples are needed for a less Eurocentric and more accurate understanding of racial stereotypes.
Cong later wrote about the research:
I really love this paper. It came out reflecting on what being Chinese means to me. And I wouldn鈥檛 have gone there mentally if I hadn鈥檛 spent time at MCI. So, big thanks to [MCI] for creating that space and inspiration.
Finally and most recently, in a 2025 China Quarterly research report, 鈥溾, Bruce Bao & Peter Gries, again using AI and Big Data, explored the nature of attitudinal bias about Chinese people in the Anglophone world today. They found relative semantic associations between Chinese people and (1) cognitive stereotypes of low warmth (less moral/trustworthy and less sociable/friendly) and somewhat low competence (less assertive/dominant but equally capable/ intelligent); (2) affective prejudice of contempt (vs admiration); and (3) behavioural discrimination of active/passive harm (vs help/cooperation). These findings provide a social psychological framework for practitioners and policymakers to reduce anti-Chinese bias and hate crimes in the real world.
MCI advances research excellence in China studies across the Humanities at UoM. Impact and equality are central to . To foster socially responsible research with impact beyond academia, MCI champions knowledge production and exchange. And MCI seeks to create a more equal world, incubating research on racial, gender, economic, and other inequalities both within China and between China and the world.