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Abstract
Black women, like other employees of marginalized identities, often engage social identity-based impression management (SIM) strategies to combat others’ negative perceptions due to negative stereotypes of their racial and gender identity (Roberts, 2005). Although there is an abundance of studies exploring SIM techniques among various identities, much of this research has taken a variable-centered approach to assume that individuals solely adopt one strategy, rather than configurations of strategies. In adopting a person-centered approach, the current study explores whether Black women differ in patterns of SIM behaviors as aligned with four major stereotypes of Black women: Mammy, Jezebel, Strong Black Woman, and Angry Black Woman. Results of both exploratory and confirmatory latent profile analyses suggest five configurations of SIM strategy among Black women: Assimilation Dominant, Jezebel Decategorization Dominant, Jezebel Confirmation Dominant, Low Jezebel Decategorization, and Low Mammy SIM. However, contrary to what was hypothesized, individuals in the Assimilation Dominant profile had the lowest cognitive impairment relative to all other profiles, suggesting that use of other strategies may act as a buffer.