Coming off the heels of an overall push for diversity within Hollywood, arguably the impetus being the #OscarsSoWhite reaction in 2015, there has been a call to action from several within the industry that this same sense of inclusion be extended to film criticism. Most recently, acclaimed actress Brie Larson (Room and the upcoming Captain Marvel), upon receiving her Crystal + Lucy Award, echoed a similar sentiment when she stated “I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about [A] Wrinkle in Time. It wasn’t made for him.” Additionally, as reported by The Guardian, a recent report from the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism uncovered that of all the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes for the 100 top-grossing films in 2017, 77.8% were written by men and 22% by women, with 82% of reviewers being white and only 18% from “under-represented racial groups.”
Larson’s statement coupled with this recent report raises the question of whether films focused on diverse ages, genders, and nationalities, such as A Wrinkle in Time, are being inadequately assessed, and if the bulk of critics being white males could lead to a prejudice, whereby film evaluations are reflecting a bias against diversity. While the push for different perspectives in film criticism is the natural and long overdue next step to better reflect the opinions of society as a whole, psychological research on stereotyping and prejudice indicates that such a measure for inclusion may not have the effect many are anticipating.
There has been extensive research into the psychology of how the process of stereotyping and prejudice occurs, with Patricia Devine’s work on the subject being particularly noteworthy. Devine theorizes that due to constant exposure at a young age to different manners of evaluating an individual based upon the larger group they belong to, everyone has to some degree an innate unconscious bias to stereotype others. A series of studies involving subliminal exposure to racial slurs and questioning participants about conscious associations with certain ethnic groups were conducted by Devine to better examine the connection between consciousness and prejudiced behavior.
Collectively, the studies found that the innate bias to stereotype is largely unavoidable, but if the individual consciously possesses non-prejudiced beliefs, they will be able to exert the required effort to reconcile this conflict and effectively profess their non-biased belief. If, however, an individual is consciously prejudiced, they will not make any effort to counter their unconscious bias. As a result, they will act in congruence with this belief and generally make prejudiced statements. In other words, it is clear that there is support for the idea of non-prejudiced individuals being prone to go to great lengths to correct the innate bias towards different racial groups.
Putting these findings into the context of film criticism, there are obvious implications. According to Devine’s research, all critics of any nationality, including white male critics, have an implicit bias, in the sense that they are aware of stereotypes of different nationalities and genders, and this knowledge is unavoidable and uncontrollable. Take for instance the recent film sensation Black Panther, which has a whopping 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. If a film critic is consciously prejudiced towards African Americans, when reviewing a film with a predominantly African American ensemble, such as Black Panther, they will be reliant on their implicit bias and be prone to providing an illogically poor review. However, if the critic is not consciously prejudiced, they will experience an internal conflict, as their innate stereotype knowledge will be at odds with their conscious ideology of not being prejudiced. As result, they will express their non-prejudiced views in the form of a favorable review in order to reconcile their innate bias and conscious beliefs.
In response to many recent films focused on underrepresented groups, such as Get Out and Wonder Woman, there has been incredibly favorable reception from critics, which seems like a clear indicator that as a whole the reviewers composed primarily of white males are not consciously biased. In accordance with Devine’s model, one could also make a case that in order to overcome innate stereotype knowledge, the effort exerted to denounce this bias could manifest into overcompensation in the form of writing overly positive reviews and a reluctance to point out any flaws with the film. While Black Panther, Get Out, and Wonder Woman are all objectively great films, and on a cultural level it was extremely refreshing to witness more diverse perspectives and challenges to gender norms in mainstream films, it could be argued that these films are not without some issues and nearing 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes might be mildly overinflated for each.
Whereas the implicit knowledge of stereotypes is believed to be possessed by all nationalities, it seems probable that a member of a specific racial group may feel less compelled to compensate for this knowledge in regards to the group they are a member of, as their belonging to this group would most likely assuage any fears of being prejudiced. Theoretically, if an African American critic were to watch a film with a predominantly African American cast, the critic’s implicit bias may be lower and they would likely feel less inclined to resolve any conflict if they are an individual who consciously promotes equality. Therefore, due to being freed of this internal conflict, it’s possible that an underrepresented film critic would assess a film more objectively, focusing more on the film’s merits rather than any concern of ensuring that they don’t appear as though they are being prejudiced. Following this line of thinking, if Black Panther were reviewed with a more diverse pool of film critics that better reflect society, this lack of compulsion to be unbiased might in fact lower the collective score.
With the recent USC Annenberg study reporting that 82% of critics are white and 77% are male, it seems imperative that there be changes on some institutional level to improve the diversity of film criticism. However, any contention that films such as A Wrinkle in Time being panned by the majority of critics is the result of prejudice or an inability to relate to the film’s message seems unfounded. In reality, there is a good chance that if A Wrinkle in Time didn’t have a diverse, female-centric cast, and dealt with themes of female empowerment, the film would have an even lower Rotten Tomatoes score, as the bulk of critics would feel less inclined to compensate for any innate stereotype knowledge they may have. It’s worth noting that many critics commended the film’s ambitions to be a big-budget spectacle whilst promoting noble social causes even when the final judgment for the review was negative. This supports the idea that critics were able to relate to the film’s message, but objected to separate issues such as shifts in tone and an overabundance of CGI.
To be clear, these findings and this line of thought aren’t purporting that on an individual basis there aren’t critics who regardless of their ethnicity are able to objectively review films of any subject matter. Rather the main point is that according to psychological research, a wider, more diverse group of critics will mean that films bold enough to challenge cultural norms may be more objectively and perhaps at times more harshly criticized as a result. Overall, if an increase in the diversity of film critics does lead to more candid reviews, then it is to the general public’s benefit, as they will have even more honest and authentic assessments at their disposal to better determine which movies are worth their time and money.
References:
Devine, P. (1989). Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 56(1), 5-18.
Marotta, J. (2018, June 14). Brie Larson Promises ‘I Do Not Hate White Dudes.’ But Laments Lack of Inclusion Among Film Critics. Retrieved from http://www.indiewire.com
Pulver, A. (2018, June 11). Film critics overwhelmingly white and male, says study. Retrieved from http://theguardian.com
