tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/implicit-association-test-4476/articlesImplicit Association Test – The Conversation2020-09-17T11:25:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1416762020-09-17T11:25:16Z2020-09-17T11:25:16ZAmerican society teaches everyone to be racist – but you can rewrite subconscious stereotypes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358228/original/file-20200915-18-1uduvtc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=202%2C50%2C2192%2C1539&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People learn racism from the culture that surrounds them and media they consume, but that doesn't need to be the end of the story.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/teacher-during-an-online-coding-language-class-for-school-news-photo/1208282634"> Gavriil Grigorov\TASS via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Progress toward a more just and equitable society may be on the horizon. Since the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in May, around the United States, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52951093">millions of people have taken to the streets</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53005243">statues have been felled</a>, leaders have been <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/07/01/every-ceo-and-leader-that-stepped-down-since-black-lives-matter-protests-began/#170265855593">fired and pressured to resign</a>, and activists-turned-politicians have <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/08/cori-bush-defeats-lacy-clay/">gained traction in prominent political races</a>. </p>
<p>But until people recognize that racism is wired into the American mind, we believe that few of these efforts are likely to actually reduce racist behavior.</p>
<p>Our work provides a way to understand how race and society influence the brain. One of us (<a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nwI8ZXIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Waddell</a>) is a sociologist who researches social inequality; the other (<a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=Xvqh8BQAAAAJ&hl=en&citsig=AMD79oqHy00tGTBoPDqjnMYchPCsZhRJxQ">Pipitone</a>) is a psychologist who examines the biological implications of human behavior.</p>
<p>Our respective work reveals a difficult fact regarding recent efforts to eradicate racism from U.S. society: If you’re American – regardless of the color of your skin – racism likely structures how you think.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358229/original/file-20200915-14-1j677vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman walks past a Black Lives Matter mural" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358229/original/file-20200915-14-1j677vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358229/original/file-20200915-14-1j677vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358229/original/file-20200915-14-1j677vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358229/original/file-20200915-14-1j677vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358229/original/file-20200915-14-1j677vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358229/original/file-20200915-14-1j677vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358229/original/file-20200915-14-1j677vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Awareness of racial injustice in the United States seemed to increase in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-walks-past-a-black-lives-matter-mural-on-august-25-news-photo/1268581512">Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Everybody’s racist</h2>
<p>A great deal of attention has been paid to the rates at which police officers kill minorities. In the U.S., police <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/">shoot and kill Black people at two and a half times the rate</a> at which they kill white people, and the disparity between Latinos and whites is nearly as high, about 1.8 times more frequent.</p>
<p>But it’s not only white officers who kill minorities at higher rates. Researchers who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903856116">compiled a database of officer-involved shootings</a> found that <a href="https://research.msu.edu/the-truth-behind-racial-disparties-in-fatal-police-shootings/">minority police officers are just as likely</a> as their white counterparts to shoot Blacks and Latinos more frequently. This work is supported by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12956">additional research</a>, which concludes that “The killing of black suspects is a police problem, not a white police problem.”</p>
<p>Does that mean that racism isn’t at play? Not at all. Rather, these facts reflect the depth to which race affects everyone in U.S. society. The aforementioned findings are echoed by the anti-racism movement advanced by historian <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/ibram-kendi-leading-scholar-of-racism-says-education-and-love-are-not-the-answer/">Ibram Kendi, who recently said</a>:</p>
<p>“You can be someone who has no intention to be racist, but because you’re conditioned in a world that is racist and a country that is structured in anti-Black racism, you yourself can perpetuate those ideas.”</p>
<p>Racism is so deeply <a href="https://theglobepost.com/2020/06/17/racism-us-poc/">interwoven into the nation’s culture</a> that it is <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/categorically-unequal-1">embedded in the neural processors inside our skulls</a>. This is true for minorities and nonminorities alike. Racism subconsciously affects the way we view other humans and perniciously affects people of color.</p>
<h2>Mental shortcuts form the foundation for bias</h2>
<p>One important feature of the human mind is its ability to consolidate and organize massive amounts of information into categories. Categorization allows you to create mental shortcuts – <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-schema-2795873">what psychologists call schemas</a> – which speed up decision-making in the future. In doing so, you’re able to make quicker decisions without reconsidering streams of information again and again.</p>
<p>Schemas allow you to reduce the amount of energy you expend on decision-making by categorizing your world into simplified, transferable forms – better known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12170">stereotypes</a>. </p>
<p>This categorical behavior has been <a href="https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/olisng/files/2019/08/Sng-Williams-Neuberg-2016-Handbook-Chapter.pdf">largely adaptive throughout human history</a>. Living in small bands under ancestral conditions, detecting allies or potential enemies would have been paramount to survival. In the modern world, however, these mental shortcuts come with a dark side.</p>
<p>Schemas are grounded in cultural teachings. They’re nurtured by your upbringing, your educators, your mentors, the movies and shows you watch, and your physical surroundings. And when it comes to race and ethnicity, schemas embody both the positive and negative associations that society teaches about different racial and ethnic groups. Over time, everyone, regardless of their own race and ethnicity, can develop implicit biases that feed into stereotypes, prejudiced behavior and discrimination.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464">Psychologists have examined implicit attitude biases</a> within the context of race and ethnicity. The Implicit Association Test measures the way in which people’s ideas and beliefs relate to their subconscious attitudes about viewing Black or white faces, or names that are typically associated with a particular racial or ethnic group. <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html">You can take the test here</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B0cW7c0pF22","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Researchers ask participants to pair concepts associated with being “Black” or “white” with attributes such as “pleasant” or “unpleasant.” They then measure the time that participants take to process information. Fast times imply the association makes sense to participants, whereas slow times indicate the opposite.</p>
<p>The results show that white Americans hold more positive associations for other white Americans than they do for Black individuals. Research by psychologist <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037//1089-2699.6.1.101">Brian Nosek and colleagues</a> shows that Black Americans report conscious, or explicit, attitudes that are more positive toward other Black individuals than toward whites. However, the same Black participants show more positive implicit associations, or subconscious attitudes, toward white individuals than they do toward Blacks, thus demonstrating how implicit racial biases affect members of the majority and minority groups alike.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=__Ip_Q0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Psychologist B. Keith Payne</a> studied how implicit biases <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00454.x">can have deadly consequences</a>. He and his colleagues asked volunteers to play a computer simulation in which they shoot people holding weapons while refraining from shooting people holding harmless objects, such as a hand tool.</p>
<p>Across multiple studies, participants are significantly more likely in the simulation to shoot Black men holding harmless objects than white men holding the same things. In these studies, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1314">Black participants make the same deadly errors</a> as their white counterparts.</p>
<h2>Short-circuiting the mental shortcuts</h2>
<p>The mental shortcuts in people’s minds are structured mainly by society. And if you are American, your mind observes from a very early age, whether consciously or not, that opportunity is <a href="https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/">tilted in favor of white people</a>.</p>
<p>Your brain notices details like white individuals having more access to <a href="https://uncf.org/pages/k-12-disparity-facts-and-stats">quality education</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK24693/">good health care</a> and <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/white-workers-are-more-likely-than-black-or-latino-americans-to-have-a-good-job-even-with-the-same-level-of-education-2019-10-17">high-paying jobs</a>. And every day, from the news, entertainment and social media, your mind absorbs images of <a href="https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/Media-Impact-onLives-of-Black-Men-and-Boys-OppAgenda.pdf">minorities being portrayed as criminals, gang members and freeloaders</a>. Over time, your mind begins to subconsciously categorize minorities as inferior.</p>
<p>As depressing as this process might sound, not all is lost. Along with a natural proclivity to take mental shortcuts and be more suspect of individuals from groups different from your own, human beings have an innate ability to critically think and reason. Your frontal cortex, the area of the brain that allows for the most complex cognitive abilities and behavioral inhibition, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.360.6395.1311-g">unmatched in the animal kingdom</a>. So, while your brain may jump to conclusions, you have the ability to reconfigure your subconscious inclinations.</p>
<p>How can you do this? </p>
<p>At the individual level, you can begin breaking down dangerous stereotypes by introducing your mind to <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/06/a-reading-list-on-issues-of-race/">more accurate depictions of our highly unequal social reality</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Individual awareness is necessary, but not sufficient to bring about societal-level change. The only way to permanently shift a mental construct such as racism is by fundamentally reorganizing the physical world that informs our minds. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358230/original/file-20200915-20-hu8lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Back of a man whose t-shirt reads 'Speak up against injustice'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358230/original/file-20200915-20-hu8lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358230/original/file-20200915-20-hu8lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358230/original/file-20200915-20-hu8lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358230/original/file-20200915-20-hu8lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358230/original/file-20200915-20-hu8lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358230/original/file-20200915-20-hu8lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358230/original/file-20200915-20-hu8lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recognizing and changing racially biased systems should start to chip away at unconscious biases.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/âblack-lives-matterâ-demonstrators-gathered-at-the-columbus-news-photo/1228502145">Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In the United States, this would require desegregating America’s schools, which, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/schools-are-still-segregated-and-black-children-are-paying-a-price/">remain unequal</a>. It would also require desegregating American neighborhoods, which are <a href="https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/SOTU_2015_spatial-segregation.pdf">deeply divided along racial and ethnic lines</a>. This shift would also depend on equal access to health care, <a href="https://www.kff.org/disparities-policy/report/key-facts-on-health-and-health-care-by-race-and-ethnicity/">which did improve a bit for minorities</a> following the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Finally, a true shift in mental constructs regarding race and ethnicity will rest upon equal representation in political offices, where <a href="https://scholars.org/contribution/how-local-political-party-leaders-perpetuate-underrepresentation-minorities-us">minorities continue to be severely underrepresented</a>. </p>
<p>In time, more equal opportunities for minorities will rewrite the implicit biases that guide each of us. Until then, Americans’ subconscious minds, as well as our decisions, will continue to reflect the divisions we see in our physical world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you’re American – regardless of the color of your skin – racism structures how you think. Changing the system should change these implicit biases.Benjamin Waddell, Associate Professor of Sociology, Fort Lewis CollegeR. Nathan Pipitone, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Florida Gulf Coast UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/986612018-06-21T10:26:00Z2018-06-21T10:26:00ZWhy our brains see the world as ‘us’ versus ‘them’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224114/original/file-20180620-137750-j7ktun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C95%2C1104%2C654&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What are your in-groups and out-groups?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/set-people-portraits-vector-illustration-1065559073">ksenia_bravo/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anti-immigrant policies, race-related demonstrations, Title IX disputes, affirmative action court cases, same-sex marriage litigation. </p>
<p>These issues are continually in the headlines. But even thoughtful articles on these subjects seem always to devolve to pitting warring factions against each other: black versus white, women versus men, gay versus straight. </p>
<p>At the most fundamental level of biology, people recognize the innate advantage of defining differences in species. But even within species, is there something in our neural circuits that leads us to find comfort in those like us and unease with those who may differ?</p>
<h2>Brain battle between distrust and reward</h2>
<p>As in all animals, human brains balance two primordial systems. One includes a brain region called the amygdala that can generate fear and distrust of things that pose a danger – think predators or or being lost somewhere unknown. The other, a group of connected structures called the mesolimbic system, can give rise to pleasure and feelings of reward in response to things that make it more likely we’ll flourish and survive – think not only food, but also social pleasure, like trust.</p>
<p>But how do these systems interact to influence how we form our concepts of community?</p>
<p><a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">Implicit association tests</a> can <a href="https://theconversation.com/measuring-the-implicit-biases-we-may-not-even-be-aware-we-have-74912">uncover the strength of unconscious associations</a>. Scientists have shown that many people harbor an implicit preference for their in-group – those like themselves – even when they show no outward or obvious signs of bias. For example, in studies whites perceive blacks as more violent and more apt to do harm, solely because they are black, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615624492">this unconscious bias is evident</a> even toward black boys as young as five years old.</p>
<p>Brain imaging studies have found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167276">increased signaling in the amygdala</a> when people make millisecond judgments of “trustworthiness” of faces. That’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-060909-153230">too short a time to reflect conscious processes and likely reveal implicit fears</a>.</p>
<p>In one study, researchers tapped into negative black stereotypes by playing violent rap music for white participants who had no external biases. This kind of priming made it hard for the brain’s cortex <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsr052">to suppress amydgalar activation and implicit bias</a>. Usually these “executive control” regions can override the amygdala’s push toward prejudice when confronted with out-group members. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are plenty of ways to define who’s in-group and who’s out-group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_sheep-1.jpg">Jesus Solana</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Whether or not such biases are learned or in some way hardwired, do they reflect conflicting activity of the amygdala versus the mesolimbic system? That is, how do our brains balance distrust and fear versus social reward when it comes to our perceptions of people not like us?</p>
<p>Research into how the amygdala responds as people assess the relative importance of differences, such as race, is nuanced and complex. Studies must take into account the differences between explicit and implicit measures of our attitudes, as well as the impact of cultural bias and individual variation. Still, research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3136">signaling within the amygdala</a> underlies the degree to which people are reluctant to trust others, especially regarding in-group versus out-group preference. It’s reasonable to conclude that much of the human instinct to distrust “others” can be traced to this part of the brain that’s important for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2017.11.056">feelings of fear and anxiety</a>.</p>
<h2>Reward from ‘sameness’</h2>
<p>As opposed to fear, distrust and anxiety, circuits of neurons in brain regions called the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.02.018">mesolimbic system are critical mediators of our sense of “reward</a>.” These neurons control the release of the transmitter dopamine, which is associated with an enhanced sense of pleasure. The addictive nature of some drugs, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.01.040">as well as</a> <a href="http://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/">pathological gaming</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.02.006">gambling</a>, are correlated with increased dopamine in mesolimbic circuits. </p>
<p>In addition to dopamine itself, neurochemicals such as oxytocin can significantly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.06.011">alter the sense of reward and pleasure</a>, especially in relationship to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.11.039">social interactions</a>, by modulating these mesolimbic circuits.</p>
<p>Methodological variations indicate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.04.011">further study is needed</a> to fully understand the roles of these signaling pathways in people. That caveat acknowledged, there is much we can learn from the complex social interactions of other mammals.</p>
<p>The neural circuits that govern social behavior and reward <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.22735">arose early in vertebrate evolution</a> and are present in birds, reptiles, bony fishes and amphibians, as well as mammals. So while there is not a lot of information on reward pathway activity in people during in-group versus out-group social situations, there are some tantalizing results from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.22735">studies on other mammals</a>.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.017">in a seminal paper</a>, neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth and his colleagues at Stanford combined genetics and behavioral tests with a cutting-edge approach <a href="https://www.neurophotometrics.com/what-is-fiber-photometry">called fiber photometry</a> where light can turn on and off specific cells. Using this process, the researchers were able to both stimulate and measure activity in identified neurons in the reward pathways, with an exquisite degree of precision. And they were able to do this in mice as they behaved in social settings.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are you like me or not?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Field_Vole_by_Bruce_McAdam.jpg">Bruce McAdam</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They showed that neural signaling in a specific group of these dopamine neurons within these mesolimbic reward loops are jazzed up when a mouse encounters a new mouse – one it’s never met before, but that is of its own genetic line. Is this dopamine reward reaction the mouse corollary of human in-group recognition?</p>
<p>What if the mouse were of a different genetic line with different external characteristics? What about with other small mammals such as voles who have dramatically different social relationships depending upon whether they are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1152/physiol.00049.2005">type that lives in the prairie or in the mountains</a>? Is there the same positive mesolimbic signaling when a prairie vole encounters a mountain vole, or does this “out-group” difference tip the balance toward the amygdala and expressing fear and distrust?</p>
<p>Scientists don’t know how these or even more subtle differences in animals might affect how their neural circuits promote social responses. But by studying them, researchers may better understand how human brain systems contribute to the implicit and unconscious bias people feel toward those in our own species who are nonetheless somewhat different.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Higher brain functions can override more primitive instincts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/brain-cerebrum-anatomy-cross-section-103381424?src=csl_recent_image-3">CLIPAREA l Custom media/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Neural signaling is not destiny</h2>
<p>Even if evolution has tilted the balance toward our brains rewarding “like” and distrusting “difference,” this need not be destiny. Activity in our brains is malleable, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2010.02.005">allowing higher-order circuits in the cortex</a> to modify the more primitive fear and reward systems to produce different behavioral outcomes.</p>
<p>Author <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</a> eloquently states that “the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” In other words, stereotypes reduce those not exactly like us to only their differences.</p>
<p>So why would people put up with the discomfort that differences evoke, rather than always selecting the easy reward with sameness? In his book “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8757.html">The Difference</a>,” social scientist <a href="https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/scottepage/">Scott Page</a> provides mathematical evidence that although diverse individuals are less trusting of one other, when working together, they are more productive. </p>
<p>From cracking the Enigma code in World War II to predicting stock prices, Page provides data to demonstrate that a diversity of perspectives produces better innovation and better solutions than the smartest set of like-minded experts. In short, diversity trumps ability. And diversity significantly <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-and-where-diversity-drives-financial-performance">enhances the level of innovation</a> in organizations across the globe.</p>
<p>So acknowledge the amygdalar distrust that differences evoke. Then, while you may not get that same boost of dopamine, recognize that when it comes to what will promote the greatest good, working with those “not like us” has its own rewards.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-like-us-how-our-brains-view-others-33974">article originally published on Nov. 12, 2014</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leslie Henderson has received funding from the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>Our neural circuits lead us to find comfort in those like us and unease with those who differ, resulting in a battle between reward and distrust. But these brain connections aren’t the end of the story.Leslie Henderson, Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology, Dean of Faculty Affairs, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/880552017-11-28T13:42:47Z2017-11-28T13:42:47ZWhite children’s bias towards other white children is not due to prejudice against black children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196292/original/file-20171124-21858-161ua05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>To many parents’ surprise, white children aged between five and eight often express racial prejudice. In <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.12991/abstract">new research</a>, my colleague and I found that young white children’s implicit racial attitudes also favoured pictures of unknown white children over unknown black children. </p>
<p>This is concerning because adults who <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-08950-006">show stronger automatic bias</a> favouring white people demonstrate less positive behaviour when interacting with black people in laboratory studies. Around the world, ethnic diversity is on the rise, so children will be required to interact with people from ethnic or racial groups other than their own in order to be successful in all aspects of their lives.</p>
<p>In three studies conducted in Toronto, Canada, 359 white children aged between five to 12-years-old completed two different tests of implicit racial bias. Like many <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2010.00342.x/full">cities</a> in the UK, the racial diversity of Toronto’s population is <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-402-x/2011000/chap/imm/imm-eng.htm">rapidly increasing</a>. </p>
<p>The first test we used was what is called an <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15248372.2015.1061527">exemplar-based measure</a> of automatic attitudes that has not been used before with young children. The children were first shown a photograph of a white face and a black face, followed by a photograph of either a pleasant object, such as a cartoon smiley face, or an unpleasant object, such as a cartoon frowning face, or a neutral inkblot. They were then asked to identify the object as pleasant or unpleasant as quickly as possible. Instead of being asked to respond directly to the pictures of black or white faces, children’s responses to the images that follow allowed us to infer the extent to which they had positive or negative feelings when seeing individuals from different racial groups. </p>
<p>The second test we used was a category-based measure <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01664.x">of automatic attitudes</a> – or what’s more commonly called an implicit association test. Photographs of white people’s faces and pleasant objects such as kittens and flowers were identified with one computer key and photographs of black people’s faces and unpleasant objects such as litter or a house collapsing were identified with another key. </p>
<p>The pairings were then reversed so that white faces and unpleasant objects were identified with one computer key and black faces and pleasant objects with the other key. The speed at which a child responded to each type of pairing when asked to categorise each photo by race or as pleasant or unpleasant, allowed us to infer the extent to which they had positive of negative feelings to the racial categories white and black. </p>
<h2>No category, no bias</h2>
<p>Research has consistently shown that white individuals display implicit bias favouring white people over black people – and that this bias <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22023224">emerges early in life</a> and remains stable <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01664.x">as a child grows up</a>. But <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdep.12155/abstract">research</a> also suggests that young children might not always spontaneously use race as a lens through which they view others. When racial categories are not linked to the task itself, white children <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-02829-002">may not</a> show strong implicit racial biases. This means that tests which ask individuals to sort people into categories based on their race may actually overestimate children’s automatic racial prejudice.</p>
<p>In our study, when both younger and older children were asked to categorise the photographs by race, they showed racial bias favouring white over black children – and the level of bias did not differ by age. By contrast, in the test where children were not required to categorise photographs by race, we found that when white five to eight-year-olds saw faces of unfamiliar white children, they automatically felt positive. But this automatic positivity did not emerge for older white children, aged between nine and 12 years of age. Crucially, neither the younger nor the older children showed evidence of automatic negativity toward the photographs of black people. </p>
<p>Our results provide a different account of racial prejudice than the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5075562/">previous research</a> which suggests that pro-white bias emerges early in children and remains stable across age groups. Instead, we found that when young children did not have to categorise target faces by race, they were more positive towards their own race – but this waned with age.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196293/original/file-20171124-21798-109emhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196293/original/file-20171124-21798-109emhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196293/original/file-20171124-21798-109emhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196293/original/file-20171124-21798-109emhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196293/original/file-20171124-21798-109emhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196293/original/file-20171124-21798-109emhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196293/original/file-20171124-21798-109emhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the same group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Driven by positive feelings</h2>
<p>Our findings suggest that white children’s automatic prejudice might be driven by positive feelings towards white people, instead of negative feelings toward black people. We also suggest that biased attitudes are more likely to be expressed when the social context encourages children to group people by race, for example in instances of residential and school segregation. </p>
<p>Our findings have wide implications for people interested in reducing children’s racial prejudice. The results suggest that those interventions designed to decrease a child’s negative feelings toward people from different ethnic groups to them might not be the best approach, as there is little evidence these attitudes have solidified in childhood. </p>
<p>Instead, successful interventions for young children might include extending the notion of what it means to be a person “like me” to include people from other racial groups. For older children, highlighting role models from different racial groups might help to strengthen inclusive racial attitudes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Williams received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to conduct this research.</span></em></p>New research has found white children’s automatic prejudice depends on whether they categorise others by race.Amanda Williams, Lecturer in Psychology of Education, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/749122017-10-30T01:52:29Z2017-10-30T01:52:29ZMeasuring the implicit biases we may not even be aware we have<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192256/original/file-20171027-13331-15sspo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Introspection won't necessarily reveal what's going on in there.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/OWSC2LRuO8U">Photo by Septian simon on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When most people think of bias, they imagine an intentional thought or action – for example, a conscious belief that women are worse than men at math or a deliberate decision to pull someone over because of his or her race. Gender and race biases in the United States have historically been overt, intentional and highly visible. But, changes to the legal system and norms guiding acceptable behavior in the U.S. have led to <a href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/163697/approve-marriage-blacks-whites.aspx">clear reductions in such explicit bias</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, we still see disparities in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2016.07.018">health</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/no-sharp-rise-seen-in-police-killings-though-increased-focus-may-suggest-otherwise.html">law enforcement</a>, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/28/5-facts-about-latinos-and-education/">education</a> and <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-ceos-sp-500">career</a> outcomes depending on group membership. And many large-scale disparities we see in society also show up in small-scale <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211286109">studies of behavior</a>. So, how are these inequalities sustained in a country that prides itself on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00604.x">egalitarianism</a>?</p>
<p>Of course, overt sexists and racists still exist and explicit biases are important. However, this isn’t how many social and organizational scientists like us currently understand <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/faqs.html#faq11">prejudice</a> – negative attitudes toward members of a social group – and <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/faqs.html#faq1">stereotyping</a> – beliefs about the characteristics of a social group. Our field is working to understand and measure implicit bias, which stems from attitudes or stereotypes that occur largely outside of conscious awareness and control.</p>
<h2>How to reveal biases we may not know we have</h2>
<p>In many cases, people don’t know they have these implicit biases. Much like we cannot introspect on how our stomachs or lungs are working, we cannot simply “look inside” our own minds and find our implicit biases. Thus, we can only understand implicit bias through the use of psychological measures that get around the problems of self-report.</p>
<p>There are a number of measures of implicit bias; the most widely used is called the Implicit Association Test (IAT; you can try one <a href="http://implicit.harvard.edu">here</a>). Researchers have published <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=302378224541015580&hl=en&as_sdt=40005&sciodt=0,10">thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles</a> based on the IAT since its creation in 1998. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192294/original/file-20171027-13340-t3od9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192294/original/file-20171027-13340-t3od9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192294/original/file-20171027-13340-t3od9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192294/original/file-20171027-13340-t3od9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192294/original/file-20171027-13340-t3od9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192294/original/file-20171027-13340-t3od9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192294/original/file-20171027-13340-t3od9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192294/original/file-20171027-13340-t3od9l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of a screen in the IAT. Participants are asked to sort the image in the middle to the left or right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Project Implicit</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The IAT measures the strength of associations between social groups (for instance, black and white people) and evaluations (such as good and bad). Just as you likely have a strong mental link between peanut butter and jelly, or doctor and nurse, our minds make links between social groups (like “women”) and evaluations (“positive”) or stereotypes (“nurturing”). </p>
<p>When taking an Implicit Association Test, one rapidly sorts images of black and white people and positive and negative words. The main idea is that making a response is easier when items that are more closely related in memory share the same response key. In one part of the test, black faces and negative words share the same response key, while white faces and positive words share a different response key. In another part of the test, white faces and negative words share the same response key, and black faces and positive words share a different response key. The extent to which one is able to do the white + good version of the test more easily than the black + good version reflects an implicit pro-white bias.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192295/original/file-20171027-13327-1ejowp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192295/original/file-20171027-13327-1ejowp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192295/original/file-20171027-13327-1ejowp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192295/original/file-20171027-13327-1ejowp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192295/original/file-20171027-13327-1ejowp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192295/original/file-20171027-13327-1ejowp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192295/original/file-20171027-13327-1ejowp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192295/original/file-20171027-13327-1ejowp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Other screens within the IAT are text-based.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Project Implicit</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pro-white implicit biases are pervasive. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10463280701489053">Data from millions of visitors</a> to the <a href="http://implicit.harvard.edu">Project Implicit website</a> reveal that, while about 70 percent of white participants report having no preference between black and white people, nearly the same number show some degree of pro-white preference on the IAT. Other tests reveal biases in favor of straight people over gay people, abled people over disabled people and thin people over fat people, and show that people associate men with science more readily than they associate women with science.</p>
<h2>Do IAT scores relate to real-world behavior?</h2>
<p>Another central question about implicit bias and the IAT is how it relates to discriminatory behavior. Arguably, what people actually do is most important, particularly when trying to understand how individual biases might lead to societal disparities.</p>
<p>And, in fact, researchers have demonstrated that people’s scores on the IAT predict how they behave. For example, one study showed that physicians with higher levels of implicit race bias were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-007-0258-5">less likely to recommend appropriate treatment</a> for a black patient than a white patient with coronary artery disease. A meta-analysis of more than 150 studies also supports the idea that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015575">there is a reliable relationship</a> between implicit bias, measured by the IAT, and real-world behavior.</p>
<p>This is not to say, however, that there’s a one-to-one correspondence between implicit bias and behavior; someone with strong pro-white implicit bias might sometimes hire a black employee, and someone with little or no implicit pro-white bias might sometimes discriminate against a black person in favor of a less qualified white person.</p>
<p>While the link between race bias and behavior is robust, it is also <a href="https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/DV8TU">fairly small</a>. But small <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000016">does not mean unimportant</a>. Small effects can have cumulative consequences at both the societal level (across lots of different people making decisions) and at the individual level (across lots of different decisions that one person makes). And some implicit biases are more related to behavior than others; for example, implicit political preferences have a very strong relationship with voting behavior.</p>
<p>Certainly more work is needed to understand the precise conditions under which the IAT will predict behavior, and how strongly, and for what attitudes. But in the aggregate, across people and settings, there is a substantial body of evidence indicating that the IAT is related to behavior.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192289/original/file-20171027-13367-1n91323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192289/original/file-20171027-13367-1n91323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192289/original/file-20171027-13367-1n91323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192289/original/file-20171027-13367-1n91323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192289/original/file-20171027-13367-1n91323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192289/original/file-20171027-13367-1n91323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192289/original/file-20171027-13367-1n91323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192289/original/file-20171027-13367-1n91323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Job applicants at a career fair might be up against the implicit biases of the hirer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/byuhawaii/8225243182">BYU–Hawaii</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>With or without a test, implicit bias exists</h2>
<p>The idea that people have associations in their minds, particularly in socially sensitive domains, that contradict their self-reported beliefs is well-established within the social sciences. But there remain important open questions about how best to identify and quantify such implicit biases and when and how implicit biases in people’s minds translate into meaningful, real-world behavior.</p>
<p>The IAT has withstood constant <a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/agg/iat_validity.htm">criticism since its creation</a> in 1998. These critiques have led to improvements of the measure and the way it is scored, as well as the tempering of early claims and the creation of new measurement procedures. That’s the way a healthy science progresses. As a result of criticism, the IAT is one of the best-understood psychological measures in use by social scientists.</p>
<p>Even if it were to turn out that our current measures of implicit bias are problematic, that would have little bearing on whether or not implicit bias exists. Mental links between social groups and evaluations and attributes are real. Bias exists. And while learning about implicit bias can be an important step in initiating behavior change for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2017.35.5.520">some people</a>, there is no published evidence that awareness alone is an antidote to the influence of implicit bias. To see a reduction in bias-based disparity, it is essential that we develop and implement empirically tested interventions – specific tools we can use to produce egalitarian behavior.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Ratliff is Executive Director of and a consultant with Project Implicit, Inc. She has received grant funding from that organization to study issues related to implicit bias.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Smith is Director of Education of and a consultant with Project Implicit, Inc. </span></em></p>Prejudice and stereotypes are part of why social inequality persists. Social scientists use tests to measure the implicit biases people harbor and see how much they relate to actions.Kate Ratliff, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of FloridaColin Smith, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/853522017-10-12T13:00:11Z2017-10-12T13:00:11ZHow to combat racial bias: Start in childhood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189869/original/file-20171011-9815-7g60uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Computer training can decrease children's biases.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Inglis</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Racial bias can seem like an intractable problem. Psychologists and other social scientists have had difficulty finding effective ways to counter it – even among people who say they support a fairer, more egalitarian society. One likely reason for the difficulty is that most efforts have been directed toward adults, whose biases and prejudices are often firmly entrenched.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I are starting to take a new look at the problem of racial bias by investigating its origins in early childhood. As we learn more about how biases take hold, will we eventually be able to intervene before any biases become permanent?</p>
<h2>Measuring racial bias</h2>
<p>When psychology researchers first began studying racial biases, they simply asked individuals to describe their thoughts and feelings about particular groups of people. A well-known problem with these measures of explicit bias is that people often try to respond to researchers in ways they think are socially appropriate.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189796/original/file-20171011-9766-12vv2g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189796/original/file-20171011-9766-12vv2g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189796/original/file-20171011-9766-12vv2g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189796/original/file-20171011-9766-12vv2g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189796/original/file-20171011-9766-12vv2g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189796/original/file-20171011-9766-12vv2g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189796/original/file-20171011-9766-12vv2g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189796/original/file-20171011-9766-12vv2g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The kind of sorting task the Implicit Association Test presents to get at biases participants may not even be aware of.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8709207/media-racial-bias-study">Project Implicit</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Starting in the 1990s, researchers began to develop methods to assess implicit bias, which is less conscious and less controllable than explicit bias. The most widely used test is the <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html">Implicit Association Test</a>, which lets researchers measure whether individuals have more <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464">positive associations</a> with some racial groups than others. However, an important limitation of this test is that it only works well with individuals who are at least six years old – the instructions are too complex for younger children to remember. </p>
<p>Recently, my colleagues and I developed a new way to measure bias, which we call the Implicit Racial Bias Test. This test can be used with children as young as age three, as well as with older children and adults. This test assesses bias in a manner similar to the IAT but with different instructions.</p>
<p>Here’s how a version of the test to detect an implicit bias that favors white people over black people would work: We show participants a series of black and white faces on a touchscreen device. Each photo is accompanied by a cartoon smile on one side of the screen and a cartoon frown on the other.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189873/original/file-20171012-9821-v6c4da.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189873/original/file-20171012-9821-v6c4da.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189873/original/file-20171012-9821-v6c4da.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189873/original/file-20171012-9821-v6c4da.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189873/original/file-20171012-9821-v6c4da.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189873/original/file-20171012-9821-v6c4da.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189873/original/file-20171012-9821-v6c4da.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189873/original/file-20171012-9821-v6c4da.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of a screen a child would see.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gail Heyman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one part of the test, we ask participants to touch the cartoon smile as quickly as possible whenever a black face appears, and the cartoon frown as quickly as possible whenever a white face appears. In another part of the test, the instructions are reversed.</p>
<p>The difference in the amount of time it takes to follow one set of instructions versus the other is used to compute the individual’s level of implicit bias. The reasoning is that it takes more time and effort to respond in ways that go against our intuitions.</p>
<h2>Do young children even have racial biases?</h2>
<p>Explicit racial biases have been <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0081615">documented in young children</a> for many years. Researchers know that young children can also show implicit bias at the earliest ages that it has been measured, and often at rates that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612463081">comparable to those seen among adults</a>.</p>
<p>Some studies suggest that precursors of racial bias can be detected in infancy. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12537">one such study</a>, researchers measured how long infants looked at faces of their own race or another race that were paired with happy or sad music. They found that 9-month-olds looked longer when the faces of their own race were paired with the happy music, which was different from the pattern of looking times for the other-race faces. This result suggests that the tendency to prefer faces that match one’s own race begins in infancy.</p>
<p>These early patterns of response arise from a basic psychological tendency to like and approach things that seem familiar, and dislike and avoid things that seem unfamiliar. Some researchers think that these tendencies have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep00460">roots in our evolutionary history</a> because they help people to build alliances within their social groups.</p>
<p>However, these biases can change over time. For example, young black children in Cameroon show an implicit bias in favor of black people versus white people as part of a general tendency to prefer in-group members, who are people who share characteristics with you. But this pattern <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12442">reverses in adulthood</a>, as individuals are repeatedly exposed to cultural messages indicating that white people have higher social status than black people.</p>
<h2>A new approach to tackling bias</h2>
<p>Researchers have long recognized that racial bias is associated with dehumanization. When people are biased against individuals of other races, they tend to view them as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430203006001009">part of an undifferentiated group</a> rather than as specific individuals. Giving adults practice at distinguishing among individuals of other races leads to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004215">a reduction in implicit bias</a>, but these effects tend to be quite short-lived.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189870/original/file-20171011-9784-bzbiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189870/original/file-20171011-9784-bzbiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189870/original/file-20171011-9784-bzbiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189870/original/file-20171011-9784-bzbiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189870/original/file-20171011-9784-bzbiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189870/original/file-20171011-9784-bzbiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189870/original/file-20171011-9784-bzbiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189870/original/file-20171011-9784-bzbiyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children used an app that assessed their implicit racial bias.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Li Zhao</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12971">In our new research</a>, we adapted this individuation approach for use with young children. Using a custom-built training app, young children learn to identify five individuals of another race during a 20-minute session. We found that 5-year-olds who participated showed no implicit racial bias immediately after the training. </p>
<p>Although the effects of a single session were short-lived, an additional 20-minute booster session one week later allowed children to maintain about half of their initial bias reduction for two months. We are currently working on a game-like version of the app for further testing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189839/original/file-20171011-28088-ykfc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189839/original/file-20171011-28088-ykfc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189839/original/file-20171011-28088-ykfc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189839/original/file-20171011-28088-ykfc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189839/original/file-20171011-28088-ykfc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189839/original/file-20171011-28088-ykfc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189839/original/file-20171011-28088-ykfc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189839/original/file-20171011-28088-ykfc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just one step along the way to a more egalitarian society.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Black-Lives-Matter-Protest/88a41ccbb9ee4e12b17b77ff6a2ded2b/57/0">AP Photo/Ted S. Warren</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Only a starting point</h2>
<p>Although our approach suggests a promising new direction for reducing racial bias, it is important to note that this is not a magic bullet. Other aspects of the tendency to dehumanize individuals of different races also need to be investigated, such as people’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617710724">diminished level of interest in the mental life</a> of individuals who are outside of their social group. Because well-intended efforts to reduce racial bias can sometimes be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025412466522">ineffective or produce unintended consequences</a>, any new approaches that are developed will need to be rigorously evaluated.</p>
<p>And of course the problem of racial bias is not one that can be solved by addressing the beliefs of individuals alone. Tackling the problem also requires addressing the broader social and economic factors that promote and maintain biased beliefs and behaviors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research is supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31771227, 31371041, and 31470993), the National Institutes of Health (R01 HD046526), and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
</span></em></p>Racial bias is associated with dehumanizing social groups different from your own. Psychologists trained kids to differentiate individuals of another race – with lasting effects on their biases.Gail Heyman, Professor of Psychology, University of California, San DiegoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/839262017-09-14T09:47:39Z2017-09-14T09:47:39ZHow our unconscious minds are prejudiced against benefit claimants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185731/original/file-20170912-3737-liebxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How biased are people against people claiming welfare?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Without us knowing, our brains are busy making associations. While on the surface we may sincerely believe that men and women are equal, or that people on benefits are just regular folks who happen to need help, our unconscious minds might not be so progressive. In psychology, ideas that we hold unconsciously are called “implicit attitudes”. </p>
<p>Implicit attitudes develop under the influence of the world around us. Immerse your brain in a culture that routinely represents women as emotional and irrational, or in which black men are habitually portrayed as aggressive and criminal, and it will develop those associations whether you want it to or not.</p>
<p>This can happen <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2fe5/bf729e923788035d770ff2af9f33d2ccd4f3.pdf">even if you are part of the maligned group yourself</a>. It is these unconscious associations that can – for example – lead a police officer to view a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brian_Payne4/publication/11825666_Prejudice_and_Perception_The_Role_of_Automatic_and_Controlled_Processes_in_Misperceiving_a_Weapon/links/5506d9b10cf26ff55f7b0a71/Prejudice-and-Perception-The-Role-of-Automatic-and-Controlled-Processes-in-Misperceiving-a-Weapon.pdf">black suspect as more threatening than a white one</a>.</p>
<p>A great deal of valuable research has been done into people’s implicit attitudes towards <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167200263001">women</a> and <a href="http://www.psych.nyu.edu/amodiolab/Publications_files/Amodio_Devine_2006.pdf">people</a> <a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/efrenperez/files/2012/11/Perez_Explicit-Evidence-on-Implicit-Attitudes2.pdf">of colour</a>. However, there are many other groups which society also tends to represent in negative, stereotyped ways. A particular target in the UK are unemployed people who receive government benefits.</p>
<p>Described in newspaper headlines as “dossers” and “layabouts” (<a href="https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/01/19/13/Welfies.jpg">The Sun</a>), “scroungers” (<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2543261/Benefits-Streets-parade-scroungers-drug-addicts-Channel-4-highest-ratings-2012.html">The Daily Mail</a>), and “skivers” (<a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/369554/Party-is-over-for-benefit-skivers">The Express</a>) benefit claimants are treated with unremitting hostility by large sections of British society. It is easy to see how exposure and immersion in this culture could lead to the development of negative unconscious feelings towards this group. This is the idea I set out to test with <a href="http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/the-social-legitimacy-of-targeted-welfare">my new research</a>. </p>
<h2>Testing our associations</h2>
<p>How do you find out if someone harbours negative implicit attitudes towards benefit claimants? The very fact that these attitudes are not conscious means you can’t just ask them directly. To get around this problem, psychologists have developed a set of tools called implicit association tests. </p>
<p>In my research, I used a specific test called the <a href="http://projectimplicit.net/nosek/gnat/">Go/No-Go Association Task</a>, or GNAT. The easiest way to describe how this works is by way of an example. Imagine you are sat in front of a black screen. At the top of the screen some white text reads “spiders and negative words”. Words will now appear and disappear rapidly in the centre of the screen. </p>
<p>As each word appears, your job is to decide if it fits into the category of “Spiders and negative words”. If it does, you press the space bar (“Go”). If it doesn’t, you don’t press anything (“No-Go”). So, for example, if you saw the words “tarantula” or “disgusting” you would press the space bar. If you saw the words “wonderful” or “glasses”, you wouldn’t.</p>
<p>Once you’ve finished going through 60 words or so, the text at the top of the screen changes. It now says “spiders and positive words”. Now if you saw the word “tarantula” or the word “wonderful”, you should press the space bar. If you saw the word “disgusting”, you shouldn’t.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185875/original/file-20170913-20280-1dlx7g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185875/original/file-20170913-20280-1dlx7g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185875/original/file-20170913-20280-1dlx7g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185875/original/file-20170913-20280-1dlx7g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185875/original/file-20170913-20280-1dlx7g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185875/original/file-20170913-20280-1dlx7g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185875/original/file-20170913-20280-1dlx7g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Testing for hidden biases.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because most people feel negatively about spiders, they will find it more difficult to group them together with positive words than they will to group them with positive words. Because the words appear and disappear so quickly, people don’t have time to deliberate. Their responses are dominated by their unconscious feelings. You can get a feel for this by trying some implicit attitude tests on a <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">website</a> run by Harvard University.</p>
<p>The principle is exactly the same when we are talking about social groups. For example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-map-shows-what-white-europeans-associate-with-race-and-it-makes-for-uncomfortable-reading-76661">study after study has found</a> that people find it much easier to pair photographs of black people with negative words than with positive ones. </p>
<h2>Bias against benefit claimants</h2>
<p>And when <a href="https://kar.kent.ac.uk/48109/">I used this technique</a> to examine unconscious attitudes towards benefit claimants in the UK, I found exactly the same results. Participants found it much easier to group words relating to benefit claimants together with negative words like “bad”, “useless”, and “dirty” than they did to group them together with positive words like “friendly”, “clean”, or “wonderful”. This was true even for people who, when asked directly, did not report having any negative opinions about people on benefits. These results strongly suggest the existence of a negative, unconscious prejudice against this group.</p>
<p>There are of course caveats to this research. My sample was small – only around 100 people. This is a similar sample size to that of <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/pdf/GPU&B.meta-analysis.JPSP.2009.pdf">most implicit attitude studies</a>. However, 100 people is clearly too few to start drawing conclusions about the British population as a whole. This is particularly true given that all of the participants came from a single town (Oxford), and that many (though not most) were university students.</p>
<p>So this research does not yet demonstrate that negative unconscious attitudes towards benefit claimants are a general feature of the British population. However, if this result proves to be robust, it has significant implications for debates about welfare both in the UK and elsewhere. </p>
<p>If antipathy towards benefit claimants is strongly rooted in people’s unconscious feelings and stereotypes, this profoundly limits the power of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/05/jobseekers-dole-guardian-research-government-welfare">facts</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/08/uk-benefit-welfare-spending">figures</a> to change people’s minds about the benefits system. Correcting <a href="http://www.poverty.ac.uk/editorial/exposing-benefit-%E2%80%98myths%E2%80%99">mistaken beliefs about the benefits system</a> is easy. Severing unconscious negative associations that have developed over decades is likely to be much, much harder.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert de Vries does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research on implicit attitudes to people who receive benefits shows how pervasive hostility towards them is.Robert de Vries, Lecturer in Quantitative Sociology in the School of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/766612017-05-02T22:58:42Z2017-05-02T22:58:42ZThis map shows what white Europeans associate with race – and it makes for uncomfortable reading<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166620/original/file-20170425-12650-16jxfww.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A European map of implicit racial bias.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided. </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This <a href="https://figshare.com/articles/European_map_of_Implicit_Racial_Bias/4750588">new map</a> shows how easily white Europeans associate black faces with negative ideas. </p>
<p>Since 2002, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have logged onto a website run by Harvard University called <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">Project Implicit</a> and taken an “implicit association test” (IAT), a rapid-response task which measures how easily you can pair items from different categories. </p>
<p>To create this new map, we used data from a version of the test which presents white or black faces and positive or negative words. The result shows how easily our minds automatically make the link between the categories – what psychologists call an “implicit racial attitude”.</p>
<p>Each country on the map is coloured according to the average score of test takers from that country. Redder countries show higher average bias, bluer countries show lower average bias, as the scale on the top of the map shows.</p>
<p>Like a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/08/across-america-whites-are-biased-and-they-dont-even-know-it/?utm_term=.caae06b4e336">similar map which had been made for US states</a>, our map shows variation in the extent of racial bias – but all European countries are racially biased when comparing blacks versus whites.</p>
<p>In every country in Europe, people are slower to associate blackness with positive words such as “good” or “nice” and faster to associate blackness with negative concepts such as “bad” or “evil”. But they are quicker to make the link between blackness and negative concepts in the Czech Republic or Lithuania than they are in Slovenia, the UK or Ireland. </p>
<p>No country had an average score below zero, which would reflect positive associations with blackness. In fact, none had an average score that was even close to zero, which would reflect neither positive nor negative racial associations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166846/original/file-20170426-2848-91puix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166846/original/file-20170426-2848-91puix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166846/original/file-20170426-2848-91puix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166846/original/file-20170426-2848-91puix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166846/original/file-20170426-2848-91puix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166846/original/file-20170426-2848-91puix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166846/original/file-20170426-2848-91puix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screeshot from the online IAT test.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">IAT, Project Implict</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Implicit bias</h2>
<p>Overall, we have scores for 144,038 white Europeans, collected between 2002 and 2015, with sample sizes for each country shown on the left-hand side.</p>
<p>Because of the design of the test it is very difficult to deliberately control your score. Many people, including those who sincerely hold non-racist or even anti-racist beliefs, demonstrate positive implicit bias on the test. The exact meaning of implicit attitudes, and the IAT, are <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-We-Really-Measure-Implicit/238807">controversial</a>, but we believe they reflect the automatic associations we hold in our minds, associations that develop over years of immersion in the social world. </p>
<p>Although we, as individuals, may not hold racist beliefs, the ideas we associate with race may be constructed by a culture which describes people of different ethnicities in consistent ways, and ways which are consistently more or less positive. Looked at like this, the IAT – which at best is a weak measure of individual psychology – may be most useful if individuals’ scores are aggregated to provide a reflection on the <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/even-artificial-intelligence-can-acquire-biases-against-race-and-gender">collective social world we inhabit</a>.</p>
<p>The results shown in this map give detail to what we already expected – that across Europe racial attitudes are not neutral. Blackness has negative associations for white Europeans, and there are some interesting patterns in how the strength of these negative associations varies across the continent. </p>
<p>North and west Europe, on average, have less strong anti-black associations, although they still have anti-black associations on average. As you move south and east the strength of negative associations tends to increase – but not everywhere. The Balkans look like an exception, compared to surrounding countries. Is this because of some quirk about how people in the Balkans heard about Project Implicit, or because their prejudices aren’t orientated around a white-black axis? For now, we can only speculate.</p>
<h2>Open questions</h2>
<p>When interpreting the map there are at least two important qualifications to bear in mind.</p>
<p>The first is that the scores only reflect racial attitudes in one dimension: pairing white/black with goodness/badness. Our feelings about ethnicity have many more dimensions which aren’t captured by this measure.</p>
<p>The second is that the data comes from Europeans who visit the the US Project Implicit website, which is in English. We can be certain that the sample reflects a subset of the European population which are more internet-savvy than is typical. They are probably also younger, and more cosmopolitan. These factors are likely to underweight the extent of implicit racism in each country, so that the true levels of implicit racism are probably higher than shown on this map.</p>
<p>This new map is possible because Project Implicit release their data via the <a href="http://osf.io/">Open Science Framework</a>. This site allows scientists to share the raw materials and data from their experiments, allowing anyone to check their working, or re-analyse the data, as we <a href="https://figshare.com/s/730b15bec39c1908cb31">have done here</a>. I believe that open tools and publishing methods like these are necessary to make science better and more reliable.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on July 18 2017 to correct the number of white Europeans whose scores were used in the study. The number was 144,038, not 288,076 as previously stated.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Stafford receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust</span></em></p>Implicit racial bias, measured across Europe.Tom Stafford, Lecturer in Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/705092017-01-05T01:37:45Z2017-01-05T01:37:45ZAre Americans becoming more xenophobic?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151668/original/image-20170103-18659-13gyh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most whites would say they're okay with diversity. But is there a threshold?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/pic-371542753/stock-vector-flat-design-map-of-the-united-states-made-up-of-a-crowd-of-people-icons-eps-10-vector-royalty-free-stock-illustration.html">'Map' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One might wonder how a country that’s becoming <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/06/25/new-census-figures-show-youth-diversity/ifAAGYM96DyDXqqWRCHm5H/story.html">increasingly diverse</a> – <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/07/06/its-official-the-us-is-becoming-a-minority-majority-nation">some projections</a> have the country becoming majority minority by 2060 – is witnessing a resurgence of white nationalist movements that used to exist on the margins of American politics.</p>
<p>As a psychologist who studies social attitudes and biases, I am interested in the impact that increasing diversity and social progress can have on racial attitudes. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2016.34.6.544">In a recent study</a>, a colleague and I analyzed how simple reminders of diversity and minority power can influence biases. The results show that the growth of minority populations in the United States could mean that xenophobic, racist rhetoric is more likely to resonate with many Americans.</p>
<h2>How diversity influences racial attitudes</h2>
<p>For the study we recruited 202 white people from across the country. We divided them into three groups. One group read excerpts from a New York Times article on the projected <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/washington/14census.html">minority-majority population shift</a> in America. Another read excerpts from a New York Times article on the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/us/politics/05elect.html">racial significance</a> of President Obama’s election in 2008. The last group – the control – didn’t read anything. </p>
<p>Next, we had participants complete a test of implicit racial bias. This means that we didn’t just ask people about their racial attitudes; we had them take a computerized reaction time test to assess their biases. </p>
<p>When it comes to sensitive topics like racial attitudes, people are often reluctant to admit their biases. Sometimes they’re <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/08/across-america-whites-are-biased-and-they-dont-even-know-it/?utm_term=.bc7572079d65">not even aware</a> what biases they have. The <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html">Implicit Association Test</a>, the most frequently used measure of implicit attitudes, requires people to quickly categorize words (for example, good and bad) and pictures (such as faces of black people and white people) into categories. The stronger the associations we have between categories, the quicker we’re able to perform the categorizations. For instance, if a participant has more positive associations with black people than white people, they’ll be able to more quickly pair positive words with black faces. </p>
<p>Our results indicated that reminding white people of the increasing size or increasing political power of racial minority groups in America – whether it was via the majority-minority projection article or the article about President Obama’s election – led them to show more implicit racial bias against black people. </p>
<p>These findings are consistent with a concept known as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2096296">Group Threat Theory</a>, which is the idea that when minority groups grow in size or power, the majority group feels threatened. This, in turn, increases intergroup prejudice. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167214524993">Other recent studies</a> about the growth of minority populations reported similar findings. But group threat doesn’t just increase intergroup bias. It also seems to make people more politically conservative. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797614527113">Psychological research</a> shows that reminding white Americans of the shifting racial demographics of the U.S. increases support for the Republican Party and political conservatism. </p>
<h2>The role of minorities in Trump’s victory</h2>
<p>So what can this research tell us about the success of Donald Trump, a politician who made – and continues to make – appeals to xenophobia?</p>
<p>Obama’s presidency could be seen as a threat to the power and privilege historically held by whites. On the heels of the first black president, Trump may have tried to capitalize on that threat to white power and privilege by promising to “<a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-freedomfest-you-cant-be-great-if-you-dont-n390546">take our country back</a>” and “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/when-was-america-great/">make America great again</a>.” </p>
<p>Trump was also able to exploit the threat borne out of the increasingly large racial and ethnic minority population in the United States. As a presidential candidate, Trump hurled some of his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/us/politics/donald-trump-black-voters.html?_r=0">most offensive and xenophobic insults</a> at immigrants, stoking fear against Latinos and Muslims (or those from majority Muslim countries) in particular. </p>
<p>This isn’t to say that all Trump voters are racist or xenophobic. But for reasons stated earlier – growing diversity, a black president – many may have been more open to these appeals (or willing to overlook them). Trump certainly played on group threat, <a href="http://time.com/4386240/donald-trump-immigration-arguments/">telling his supporters</a> that immigrants were stealing their jobs, exhausting public benefits and challenging the American way of life. From a psychological perspective, we know these reminders will cause people to feel threatened. </p>
<p>Whether Trump did it knowingly or not, it was incredibly effective. And now other groups are following his lead. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article first published on Jan. 4, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Simple reminders of the growing diversity of the country and the political power of minorities can influence biases.Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo, Psychology Researcher, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/657112016-10-27T01:41:39Z2016-10-27T01:41:39ZWhat is the secret to success?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143153/original/image-20161025-4702-1e5qto7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who succeeds will depend not on intentions alone.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gettysburgcollege/2978430748/in/photolist-c8UdDd-canryA-c8EKkd-c8wZTf-c8Ubo7-773Eje-cthRBb-c8Ubtf-7yAJjG-ceKJeN-4Suvuj-ctj5J5-c8x1q9-bXozpT-cuDLTA-cee83Q-cuDPtJ-cfKxZC-cansAG-qzncdX-cant5d-66GG5-bV38NH-cti47L-canq7Y-83c7Pf-canwtG-cti5p7-c9N6cm-c8EB2o-cfVGq3-9gUedV-c9N5kW-ctjaUu-ctjacy-9gU4UM-cuDNz3-83caPu-ctj8e5-c8WrjW-c8UcVb-9gWfS7-bVQEr2-gafDey-cthTJf-5xceGh-bWy68x-ceK91L-bVQDfk-pLKjn2">Gettysburg College</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At hundreds of colleges and universities across the country, thousands of students are in the midst of the fall semester, trying to manage the academic tasks of studying, exams, papers and lectures. A lot is riding on their academic performance – earning (or just keeping) scholarships, landing summer internships, gaining employment and of course acquiring new skills and knowledge.</p>
<p>The vast majority of students will tell you they intend to do well, that they know it takes hard work to succeed. But some students will <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/03/11/men-really-hate-studying-love-partying/?utm_term=.700449b35a20">end up hitting more bars</a> and parties than books. That is, not everyone ends up <a href="https://www.aacu.org/leap/public-opinion-research/2015-students">putting in that hard work</a>. </p>
<p>In our own work, we have found that asking college students questions like, “How important do you think it is to do well at college?” gives us essentially no information about who will do well in terms of grades. </p>
<p>College students are hardly unique in not following through on their intentions and goals. Frustrated parents might do well to look to their own unused gym memberships or perennial weight-loss resolutions to realize that intentions are not always sufficient to ensure steady progress toward one’s goals.</p>
<p>Why is there such a disconnect between our intentions and our actions? And, how can we predict who has the grit to succeed, if we can’t depend on what people tell us?</p>
<h2>Explicit or implicit beliefs?</h2>
<p>When people are directly asked how important they think it is to succeed at some goal, they are reporting their “explicit beliefs.” Such beliefs may largely reflect people’s aspirations, such as their sincere intentions to buckle down and study hard this semester, but these <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19057976">may not always map</a> onto their subsequent inclination to persist. </p>
<p>Rather than depend on people’s explicit beliefs, in our research we looked instead to people’s implicit beliefs.</p>
<p>Implicit beliefs are mental associations that are <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195307696.001.0001/acprof-9780195307696-chapter-15">measured indirectly</a>. Rather than asking the person to state what they think about some topic, implicit measures use computerized reaction-time tasks to infer the strength of someone’s implicit associations. For instance, a great deal of research by psychologists <a href="https://www.projectimplicit.net/nosek/">Brian Nosek</a>, <a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/agg/">Tony Greenwald</a> and <a href="http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ebanaji/bio.html">Mahzarin Banaji</a> over the last two decades has shown that <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">people often hold negative implicit associations </a> about members of stigmatized racial and ethnic groups.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143159/original/image-20161025-4699-v070i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143159/original/image-20161025-4699-v070i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143159/original/image-20161025-4699-v070i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143159/original/image-20161025-4699-v070i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143159/original/image-20161025-4699-v070i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143159/original/image-20161025-4699-v070i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143159/original/image-20161025-4699-v070i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People often have negative implicit associations about members of stigmatized racial and ethnic groups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/artfulblogger/5672711314/in/photolist-9Dh8ru-9CncaK-9Df9K6-9CpHtF-9CpQuJ-9D2hdW-9CoHiD-goptmS-kGixNC-7bephj-3dGDmE-4ChRWt-6usrdx-ihttk8-ihsTNw-ihsFDa-ihsNxQ-pZpMje-miysZi-kGcmFu-Jf7q69-ihsy6K-kJaVBn-j1dfps-ihsKuC-b6DGrP-6gEdeV-5Sh1Ad-iZhpf1-7wpL3v-kGgC4X-kJaK6x-eoh8mg-arGfyH-78zdwE-D88P8p-8pr74V-9HpNH1-5PHohc-6gEik8-b1dwA-mixkND-ihsAex-dAwaNp-j1akyT-kGiG5Y-fj35Wu-6if8dW-skbaea-67VqCX">Kate</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even though many participants in these studies explicitly stated they believed in fairness and equality among racial groups, they nevertheless <a href="http://spottheblindspot.com/">showed implicit biases</a> toward racial and ethnic groups. In other words, whereas people “said” they were egalitarian, they in fact possessed strong negative associations in their mind when it came to certain racial groups. </p>
<p>Implicit associations are critical to understand because they can <a href="https://uncch.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/sequential-priming-measures-of-implicit-social-cognition-a-meta-a">predict a range of everyday behaviors</a>, from the mundane (what foods people eat) to the monumental (how people vote). </p>
<p>But do implicit associations predict who has the grit to succeed at life’s difficult goals? </p>
<h2>Here’s what we did</h2>
<p>To find out, instead of measuring people’s explicit beliefs about the importance of their goals, we measured <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27281353">people’s implicit beliefs</a> about the importance of an area (e.g., schoolwork, exercise) and then measured their success and persistence at relevant tasks (e.g., grades, gym regimens). </p>
<p>We used a computer-based test called the “Implicit Association Test (IAT)” to measure our participants’ implicit beliefs. The test takes about seven minutes to complete. Participants have to don noise-canceling headphones and sit in a distraction-free cubicle. </p>
<p>In five of our studies, we used this test to measure students’ cognitive association between “importance” and “schoolwork.” Student participants were asked to indicate, as quickly as they could, using computer keys, whether each of a series of words was related to “schoolwork,” was a synonym of “importance” or was a synonym of “unimportance.” Examples of such words included “exam,” “critical” and “trivial.” </p>
<p>The test was set up in such a way so that even a slight difference in the speed of response (at the level of milliseconds) could reveal differences in the strength of the association between schoolwork and importance. </p>
<p>In short, it allowed us to measure the extent to which people implicitly believed that schoolwork was important. </p>
<h2>Multiple studies to corroborate</h2>
<p>Could millisecond differences in reaction times meaningfully capture people’s beliefs and predict success in their goals? For instance, could this seven-minute-long measure of milliseconds predict who would earn straight A’s in their college classes? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143160/original/image-20161025-4738-1emau75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143160/original/image-20161025-4738-1emau75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143160/original/image-20161025-4738-1emau75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143160/original/image-20161025-4738-1emau75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143160/original/image-20161025-4738-1emau75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143160/original/image-20161025-4738-1emau75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143160/original/image-20161025-4738-1emau75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Implicit beliefs can identify who will meet their goals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/salendron/5554106918/in/photolist-9sNfu7-Dk2qH1-9CpQdi-9CpFSx-sc2Nb6-8LvQHY-9CrAt9-bd5gUz-sM5ER-9CrzCy-9CYgqM-9Dhfcy-9Dh8ru-9CncaK-9Df9K6-9CpHtF-9CpQuJ-9D2hdW-9CoHiD-goptmS-kGixNC-7bephj-3dGDmE-4ChRWt-6usrdx-ihttk8-ihsTNw-ihsFDa-ihsNxQ-pZpMje-miysZi-kGcmFu-Jf7q69-ihsy6K-kJaVBn-j1dfps-ihsKuC-b6DGrP-6gEdeV-5Sh1Ad-iZhpf1-7wpL3v-kGgC4X-kJaK6x-eoh8mg-arGfyH-78zdwE-D88P8p-8pr74V-9HpNH1">salendron</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that they did. And we didn’t observe this relationship just once. We found that again and again – across seven different studies, run in different labs, with different populations and predicting different types of persistence and success. Across five studies, we found that college students’ implicit belief in the importance of schoolwork predicted who got higher grades. </p>
<p>We didn’t limit our study to college performance. We also tested other goals, such as going to the gym. We found that those who had a stronger association between importance and exercise were significantly more likely to exercise more often and more intensely.</p>
<p>Then we conducted a test to find out how implicit beliefs predicted test-taking abilities. We tested college students’ implicit beliefs about the importance of the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), a widely used exam that helps determine graduate school admissions and scholarships. Those who showed a stronger association between importance and the GRE scored significantly better on a practice GRE test. </p>
<h2>A unique measure of likelihood of success</h2>
<p>Like any measure, ours wasn’t perfect. We couldn’t always predict in every instance who would succeed or fail. But our brief computerized test provided new insight into who was likely to succeed – an insight not captured by more traditional measures.</p>
<p>For example, higher SAT scores are taken to be a measure of who will likely do better at college and better on the GRE. Our data did show that SAT scores are a good predictor of both. However, knowing participants’ implicit beliefs in the importance of school or the GRE predicted success over and above what SAT scores could tell us. In other words, even when two people scored the same on the SAT, the one with the stronger implicit belief about the importance of the GRE tended to score better on the practice exam. </p>
<p>One interesting finding in our studies was that implicit beliefs predicted some people’s success more than others. Closer examination showed that those for whom exerting self-control was difficult – those who said they have trouble completing assignments on time, who could be easily dissuaded from making it to spin class or who have difficulty maintaining focus during long reading comprehension passages – were those who most benefited from having a strong implicit belief that the goal was important. </p>
<p>In other words, it was those individuals in need of a boost who most clearly benefited from the implicit nudge that their pursuits were important. </p>
<h2>What exactly is the role of implicit beliefs?</h2>
<p>Our work adds to a <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2014-48911-001/">growing body of evidence</a> that the ordinarily hidden-from-view, implicit associations in our mind offer new insights about many everyday decisions and behaviors. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143162/original/image-20161025-4710-1kkypd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143162/original/image-20161025-4710-1kkypd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143162/original/image-20161025-4710-1kkypd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143162/original/image-20161025-4710-1kkypd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143162/original/image-20161025-4710-1kkypd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143162/original/image-20161025-4710-1kkypd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143162/original/image-20161025-4710-1kkypd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Implicit beliefs can predict chances of success.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/amandawoodward/303024645/in/photolist-sM5ER-9CrzCy-9CYgqM-9Dhfcy-9Dh8ru-9CncaK-9Df9K6-9CpHtF-9CpQuJ-9D2hdW-9CoHiD-9DetPa-9Csfid-9Cs4H3-9DeuBB-9CqiGw-9Dha7S-9CoPSV-9D2s3m-9CsBm1-9D2rmb-9DhEjW-9CrMDL-9DePer-9CpFdB-9Cs23A-9CptUz-9DhUSf-9CpPpn-bEYYkN-9Cqbtg-B2gVt-9CsLB5-9CqaEr-9Di1aA-9CsGHo-9CoSh4-9DdRtB-9DhnmS-33BVgM-9DhQss-9DhuPS-9Cq8wX-9CscVQ-9CqfSV-9DgLWq-9DhAr5-9DeCXa-9CrL41-9Cq6h5">PROAmanda Woodward</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, just as implicit associations can predict <a href="http://spottheblindspot.com/">intergroup behavior</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25365037">first impressions</a> of other people and <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0163872">voting behavior</a>, our new findings show that they also predict success at some of life’s most challenging tasks.</p>
<p>However, there are still some questions that remain. For example, do implicit beliefs in the importance of working hard actually cause people to do better, or do they simply identify who is likely to succeed? Could changing people’s implicit beliefs have real effects on their prospects for success?</p>
<p>To be clear: It is certainly not the case that what people say about how much they care about something does not matter at all. Indeed, we would guess that people who say they care nothing about exercising will not be heading to the gym, regardless of their implicit associations between exercise and importance. </p>
<p>But, especially among those who say they do care about something – such as the vast majority of college students caring about their performance at school – a measure of their implicit beliefs may give us a better idea about how likely they are to succeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65711/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two researchers set out to find out why some people might be better at achieving goals than others. The answer, they found, could lie in implicit beliefs.Melissa J. Ferguson, Professor of Psychology, Cornell UniversityClayton R. Critcher, Associate Professor of Marketing, Cognitive Science, & Psychology, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/424952015-05-28T18:09:55Z2015-05-28T18:09:55ZSleep study raises hope for clinical treatment of racism, sexism and other biases<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83256/original/image-20150528-31310-1l5bnmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sleep before you speak.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/freddy-click-boy/3122230997/in/photolist-5KUfuV-poq9pd-6xxSRe-9fwDmX-nYaFX8-9ogdBK-kCxZgZ-7AuU12-4c9LZ-6icRua-6ftSen-nVxSo1-7ftnEm-nGpeDE-6jvZN8-ojvdHv-4wTzqo-ne31Vi-7ixtRV-qk4H1v-GYgBR-6wNdM2-Fm3Em-2Ru4vB-h61syQ-3fJjV7-6vPcw4-3d3weA-5DmvfX-djzCUk-aq2GXB-dRHULb-eDF7iL-6AnXo9-5Rx5jQ-fh7cD6-rfvFAq-48gCyv-78xnkZ-ofoYhE-b3i9yi-prMHUi-3jRVyZ-fQjZQn-azihvP-5vi6xr-8cuRx9-fTDa66-cXNWjb-6AiRzX"> Angel Arcones/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine being able to erase the innermost prejudices you are most ashamed of by simply turning on a sound machine before going to bed. It may sound fantastical, but a new study has shown that <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaa3841">our biases can indeed be counteracted while we sleep</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, most of us would contend that we are not racist or sexist. But many studies have shown that our actions suggest otherwise. For example, when evaluating applications for a science laboratory position, male applicants were viewed by university science faculty members <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474.abstract">as more hireable</a>, competent and deserving of a high salary than identically qualified female applicants.</p>
<p>These biases are not surprising. We are often overwhelmed with information that can reinforce race and gender stereotypes.</p>
<h2>Implicit association</h2>
<p>In a new study, researchers built on our rapidly developing understanding of the way recent memories become ingrained in our mind during sleep. This “consolidation” process takes an unstable new memory and makes it stronger, and more resistant to forgetting, possibly changing its nature in the process. </p>
<p>The researchers were interested in whether implicit gender or racial biases – views that we are not necessarily aware of – could be manipulated. In order to assess people’s biases, they used an <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/australia/">implicit association test</a> (IAT). This requires people to make two category judgements by pressing one of two buttons. In a test of gender bias, for example, participants might categorise female faces by pressing one button and male faces with another. They would also have to classify words into “science” and “art” categories using the same keys.</p>
<p>People who implicitly associate women with art and men with science should respond relatively slowly when asked to use the same key for female faces and science words, compared with female faces and art words. There is <a href="http://neurocritic.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/contest-to-reduce-implicit-racial-bias.html">debate</a> about exactly what this test measures, but it has proved to be a revealing measure of attitudes in a <a href="http://projectimplicit.net/nosek/papers/NGB2006.pdf">wide array of research areas</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers then tried to counter these biases by requiring the participants to make associations that reversed the stereotypes. For example, participants might be asked to identify only female faces that were paired with science words. These new associations were “tagged” in their memory by playing a particular sound when participants correctly identified the counterexamples. Another IAT showed weaker implicit biases after the interventions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83254/original/image-20150528-31341-spmfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83254/original/image-20150528-31341-spmfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83254/original/image-20150528-31341-spmfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83254/original/image-20150528-31341-spmfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83254/original/image-20150528-31341-spmfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83254/original/image-20150528-31341-spmfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83254/original/image-20150528-31341-spmfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The experiment in pictures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.eurekalert.org/jrnls/sci/pages/hu-05-29-15.html">P Huey/Science</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But showing an immediate effect of an intervention is not very useful if the benefits are short-lived. Here’s where the study got really interesting. Participants were asked to have a nap in the lab, while electrodes recorded their brain activity. When deep sleep was observed, one of the sound cues from the association test was repeatedly played. </p>
<p>The idea here is that the sound can reactivate the memories of the recent events and facilitate their consolidation. In effect, the researchers have found a way of picking out particular memories and asking the brain to give them special treatment during consolidation. Similar replay effects in sleep have been found by this group and others using both sounds and <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/315/5817/1426.short">odours</a>, and curiously the cueing effect of the sound is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.1179013">more effective during sleep</a> than when people are awake. In this case, the replay was again effective: bias as measured by the IAT after sleep for the cued intervention was less extreme than the bias for the uncued intervention.</p>
<h2>How far from clinical practice?</h2>
<p>There are of course many more questions one might ask about this type of research. No-one is suggesting that biases developed over many years are going to be eliminated using a short intervention and then giving the natural consolidation process a helping hand. For a start, it is unclear how long such replay effects might last. The research included a test of implicit bias one week after the intervention, but although there was some evidence that the sounds did have a benefit at that point, the evidence was relatively weak. </p>
<p>Another key question is whether training on positive associations and then testing using the IAT is a form of <a href="http://web.uvic.ca/psyc/skelton/Teaching/TEACHING%20TO%20THE%20TEST.htm">teaching to the test</a>. It would be really useful to know if such bias effects could lead to altered explicit attitudes – those that we are conscious of – and real behaviour change. A recent <a href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Emrbworks/articles/2014_Lai_JESPG.pdf">large-scale study</a> of racial bias interventions showed clear benefits on the IAT but no change in explicit attitudes. However that was when tested straight after the intervention. </p>
<p>The intriguing possibility that the current study raises is that consolidation may lead to more generalised benefits. During sleep, the storage of recent memories spreads to different parts of the brain, and this systems-level consolidation may change the nature of the memory. Sleep has been shown to promote <a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn.2006.18.3.311#.VWbSgs9VhBc">a shift from implicit to explicit knowledge</a>, and work in our lab has found that sleep may lead to the <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/43/14356.abstract">integration of new memories</a> with existing knowledge. Possibly the shift in implicit attitudes is just the starting point for a chain of consolidation processes that can lead to improved explicit representations of gender and racial stereotypes, and even changes in actions or verbal behaviour. </p>
<p>One of the most fascinating aspects of the current study is that it enhances our understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in memory formation and consolidation. It also offers an intriguing new take on the way in which prejudices and stereotypes form, and how they might be malleable. The hope for the future is that our understanding of prejudice and bias may be further benefited by a more unified understanding of these two areas. </p>
<p>However, for this to one day work as a reliable treatment for racism, sexism, or other bad habits we need to know much more about the longevity and generality of changes in implicit attitudes.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-unlearn-social-biases-while-we-sleep-42445">To read about the researchers own experience, click here </a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42495/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gareth Gaskell receives funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>Social biases like racism and sexism can be weakened after a good night’s sleep, suggests study.Gareth Gaskell, Professor of Psychology, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/423932015-05-28T10:07:25Z2015-05-28T10:07:25ZMost people think ‘man’ when they think ‘scientist’ – how can we kill the stereotype?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83185/original/image-20150528-4388-fb7riv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ask a kid to draw a scientist, you'll probably get a man in a lab coat.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drawing_from_original_DAST_study.jpg">Yewhoenter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children learn to associate science with men at early ages. Over 40 years ago, less than 1% of American and Canadian elementary school children <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sce.3730670213">drew a woman</a> when asked to draw a scientist. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000005">My latest research</a>, published in <em>Journal of Educational Psychology</em>, shows that gender-science stereotypes persist even now, worldwide.</p>
<p>Using data from nearly 350,000 people in 66 nations, my colleagues and I found that these stereotypes prevail even in supposedly “gender-equal” nations like Norway and Sweden. These stereotypes matter because they can cause actions such as <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/05/girls_with_toys_on_twitter_feminist_hashtag_shares_images_of_women_doing.html">comments that overlook female scientists</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-good-news-about-hiring-women-in-stem-doesnt-erase-sex-bias-issue-40212">hiring</a> <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1418878112">biases</a> that favor <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1314788111">men</a> in some <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0036734">contexts</a>. </p>
<p>Identifying the extent of the issue is one thing. It is another matter to learn how to change these beliefs so they reflect the diversity of actual scientists – and the children of both sexes who hope to grow up to join them.</p>
<h2>More women, weaker stereotypes</h2>
<p>The good news is that gender-science stereotypes were weaker in nations with more women in science. Nations with more female science majors, for instance, had weaker gender-science stereotypes on both “explicit” and “implicit” measures. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83194/original/image-20150528-25998-1c2t739.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83194/original/image-20150528-25998-1c2t739.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83194/original/image-20150528-25998-1c2t739.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83194/original/image-20150528-25998-1c2t739.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83194/original/image-20150528-25998-1c2t739.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83194/original/image-20150528-25998-1c2t739.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83194/original/image-20150528-25998-1c2t739.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83194/original/image-20150528-25998-1c2t739.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Screenshot from the Implicit Association Test. Most participants implicitly associate science with men and can therefore categorize words faster when the <em>Science</em> word category is paired with <em>Male</em> than <em>Female</em>. These faster response times are thought to reflect implicit stereotypes, which tend to be more automatic and less conscious than explicit stereotypes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://implicit.harvard.edu">implicit.harvard.edu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Self-selected subjects completed these measures on the <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">Project Implicit website</a>. For the explicit measure, people rated how much they associated science with males or females. For the implicit measure, a <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html">computerized task</a> assessed how quickly people associated <em>science</em> words such as “math” and “physics” with <em>male</em> words such as “boy” and “man.” </p>
<p><a href="http://d-miller.github.io/Stereotypes-Table/">My website has an interactive table</a> with rankings for all nations. For implicit stereotypes, the US ranked in the middle at number 38 out of 66 nations, for instance. The UK was close by at number 33, while Australia was number 28, meaning implicit stereotypes associating science with men were stronger there.</p>
<p>Out of all 66 nations, the Netherlands had the strongest explicit stereotypes and second strongest implicit stereotypes. For instance, 89% of Dutch subjects implicitly associated science with men more than women. </p>
<p>Simone Buitendijk, vice-rector at Leiden University in the Netherlands and a gender equity scholar, told me that she is not surprised, but nevertheless deeply concerned. “It is very much part of Dutch culture to see men as breadwinners and women as caretakers first,” she said. </p>
<p>The strong Dutch stereotypes reflect the male dominance in science there. Dutch men outnumber Dutch women by <a href="http://data.uis.unesco.org/">roughly 4:1</a> among science majors, for instance. “It will take a concerted effort by government, funding agencies and university leaders to change the situation,” Buitendijk argued.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83155/original/image-20150527-4818-188z7bj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83155/original/image-20150527-4818-188z7bj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83155/original/image-20150527-4818-188z7bj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83155/original/image-20150527-4818-188z7bj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83155/original/image-20150527-4818-188z7bj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83155/original/image-20150527-4818-188z7bj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83155/original/image-20150527-4818-188z7bj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83155/original/image-20150527-4818-188z7bj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The more female science majors, the weaker implicit gender-science stereotypes. Graph primarily reflects 2000-2008 data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adapted from Figure 2c in Miller, Eagly, and Linn (in press)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These data might suggest to some that stereotypes merely reflect reality. However, the data paint a more complex picture. People linked science with men even in nations such as Argentina and Bulgaria where women are approximately half of science majors and researchers. </p>
<p><a href="http://curt-rice.com/about/">Curt Rice</a>, head of Norway’s Committee on Gender Balance and Diversity in Research, told me how these international findings relate to a “gender equality paradox” sometimes discussed in Scandinavia. On one hand, Scandinavian nations <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2014/">have small gender gaps</a> in labor force participation rates. “But we have tremendous sex-based segregation in the careers,” he said.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83181/original/image-20150528-4844-sy304z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83181/original/image-20150528-4844-sy304z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83181/original/image-20150528-4844-sy304z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83181/original/image-20150528-4844-sy304z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83181/original/image-20150528-4844-sy304z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83181/original/image-20150528-4844-sy304z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83181/original/image-20150528-4844-sy304z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83181/original/image-20150528-4844-sy304z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What happens when a woman is at the front of the science classroom?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/umkc/5412892329">UMKC</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dispelling stereotypes – or reinforcing?</h2>
<p>Highlighting examples of female scientists might help to weaken these pervasive stereotypes. For instance, in Norway, Rice plans to advance initiatives that enhance the visibility of female science professors through his upcoming role as President of the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences.</p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0021385">Empirical data</a>, however, suggest that female professors often have limited effects on students’ gender-science stereotypes. “Simply taking a college mathematics course from female instructors is generally not sufficient to change stereotypes,” notes my co-author <a href="http://www.psychology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core/profiles/alice-eagly.html">Alice Eagly</a>, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0361684313482109">one study</a>, taking chemistry and engineering courses from female versus male professors can even <em>strengthen</em> gender-science stereotypes if students do not identify with the professors. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00049">Related research</a> suggests that the attitudes and messages that teachers convey can be more important than the teachers’ gender. In <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910967107">one study</a>, for instance, kindergarten girls endorsed gender-math stereotypes if their female teacher was anxious about mathematics. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"603250272953978880"}"></div></p>
<p>More optimistically, educators could help weaken stereotypes by engaging students in analyzing varied examples of female scientists, argues <a href="http://telscenter.org/mclinn">Marcia Linn</a>, the other co-author of my study and professor of cognition and development at University of California, Berkeley. “Students reconsider who pursues science when they can compare examples of female scientists and reflect on their beliefs,” <a href="http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2015/05/gender-science-stereotypes-persist-across-the-world.html">she says</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83180/original/image-20150528-4854-1jpelfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83180/original/image-20150528-4854-1jpelfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83180/original/image-20150528-4854-1jpelfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83180/original/image-20150528-4854-1jpelfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83180/original/image-20150528-4854-1jpelfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83180/original/image-20150528-4854-1jpelfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83180/original/image-20150528-4854-1jpelfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83180/original/image-20150528-4854-1jpelfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Did you know all scientists aren’t old white dudes?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/4249170950">World Bank</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Integrating stories about scientists into classroom instruction could have <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028108">other benefits too</a>. In <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026224">one experiment</a>, for instance, learning how scientists struggled in their research increased students’ content understanding and interest in science. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2011.607313">Seeing female peers in science</a> might also help weaken stereotypes. Explicit gender-science stereotypes, for instance, are weaker among students in more gender-balanced science majors like biology than male-dominated majors like physics, according to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00415">new research</a> published in <em>Frontiers in Psychology</em>. However, the data on peers are also complex. <em>Implicit</em> gender-science stereotypes are roughly the same among physical and biological science majors, for instance.</p>
<p>These studies reflect how firm gender-science stereotypes are, consistent with the Greek root “stereos” meaning “solid, firm.” Our cross-national findings nevertheless suggest optimism that stereotypes can change as people see more women in science. But changing cultural beliefs will be <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00037">a slow process</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83207/original/image-20150528-26032-m2n0zx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83207/original/image-20150528-26032-m2n0zx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83207/original/image-20150528-26032-m2n0zx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83207/original/image-20150528-26032-m2n0zx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83207/original/image-20150528-26032-m2n0zx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83207/original/image-20150528-26032-m2n0zx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83207/original/image-20150528-26032-m2n0zx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83207/original/image-20150528-26032-m2n0zx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie Curie isn’t the only woman who’s pursued science.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">xkcd.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To accelerate cultural change, we need to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/520267f">move beyond</a> heralding single examples of eminent female scientists such as Marie Curie. We even need to move beyond creating lists of accomplished female scientists, and instead directly integrate those examples into diverse cultural messages. Most recently, Disney Junior <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/google-nasa-work-together-on-disney-show-to-inspire-girls-into-sciences/2015/05/15/e36d6fc4-fa62-11e4-9030-b4732caefe81_story.html">announced</a> it will work with Google and NASA to create TV characters of both young boys and girls interested in coding and space science.</p>
<p>I applaud such efforts, but more needs to be done to integrate female scientists into other cultural artifacts such as news articles, movies, and textbooks. These efforts are needed so that it’s not seen as atypical to discuss a woman scientist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Miller receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>Even citizens of gender-equal countries associate science with men. The stereotype persists, though weakened a bit in countries with more women doing science. How can we put it to bed once and for all?David Miller, Doctoral Student in Psychology, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/395962015-05-14T05:08:31Z2015-05-14T05:08:31ZUK election shows women still face psychological barriers to equality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81595/original/image-20150513-2470-oqkhd4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">ITV's Julie Etchingham on election night. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4DsAi2dI70">ITV News/YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the 2015 general election, the UK will see a record number of women taking seats in the House of Commons. Yet the activity before and during election night has demonstrated that there are still significant obstacles to gender equality in our society. In fact, the biggest challenges that women face today aren’t always overt, political or structural – they’re often psychological. </p>
<p>The election coverage on Thursday night provided clear examples of the way women are portrayed in the media during important social events. While the first hour of the coverage revealed at least three women candidates had won their seats, the picture back at the studio was less than generous in its representation of women. </p>
<p>Almost across the board, commentary panels were populated by men in suits, providing what was proffered as expert and earnest insight. The role of number-crunching and visual description fell to the female members of the team in front of technical and dazzling display boards, harking back to the “barrel girl” sidekick roles of the seventies. When they weren’t working the tally board, women journalists were charged with less challenging roles, like roaming the set and chatting to experts from Facebook about the reactions on social media.</p>
<p>A swathe of Twitter commentary damned the under-representation of women in robust commentary roles. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81565/original/image-20150513-2483-50nhii.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81565/original/image-20150513-2483-50nhii.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81565/original/image-20150513-2483-50nhii.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81565/original/image-20150513-2483-50nhii.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81565/original/image-20150513-2483-50nhii.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81565/original/image-20150513-2483-50nhii.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81565/original/image-20150513-2483-50nhii.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81565/original/image-20150513-2483-50nhii.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stuck in front of the screen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCmhYplyPns">BBC/YouTube</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Implicit bias</h2>
<p>The way we see gender roles is formed and perpetuated by our interactions with our social environment. Our perceptions about these roles unconsciously influence how we value the contribution of individuals around us. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/research/cognition-decision-expertise.aspx">Recent work</a> by Adrian Banks illustrates that human decision making is driven by what we’re comfortable with, and what we consider to be socially acceptable, due to regular exposure. In this context, women in certain roles may be unfamiliar. This means that when we’re appointing people to roles, the subconscious kicks in and defaults to a known position. </p>
<p>The media is used to putting men in suits on commentary panels, and the public is used to seeing women as “assistants”. It’s comfortable and familiar, and so no one on the production team gives a second thought to seeking out alternative panel members. Diversity of voice may not even have been consideration, because no no one consciously thought to question the lack of it. </p>
<p>On election night, most of what we saw delivered as intellectual and considered insight was conveyed by a male voice. This has an almost imperceptible but influential impact on how we generate our own ideas about gender roles, and the associated value of those roles.</p>
<p>Many structural and administrative barriers – such as overt discrimination – have been outlawed, giving women the opportunity to achieve in public and business life. But the psychological ones have not. In fact, invisible barriers – such as discriminatory opinions – may often rest with those who could provide avenues of achievement to women; employers, for example. </p>
<p>Much has been written about unconscious (or implicit) bias as an impediment to gender equality. Harvard Professor of Social Ethics, Mahzarin Banaji, who has spent many years investigating the matter, finds that most people reject the idea of overt discrimination. However, she suggests that while people may believe themselves to be perfectly open to diversity, this <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/science/blogs/science-in-mind/2013/02/05/everyone-biased-harvard-professor-work-reveals-barely-know-our-own-minds/7x5K4gvrvaT5d3vpDaXC1K/blog.html">may not be reflected</a> in their unconscious thoughts and behaviour. </p>
<p>Modern discrimination, Banaji suggests, is less about negative impacts on “them” – overt discrimination against women, for instance. Instead, it is more about the implicit behaviour and actions that favour those within the “in group” – for example, giving greater consideration and approval to the contribution of men.</p>
<p>Our unconscious biases are deeply embedded. They arise from what see around us from an early age. The media, of course, plays a highly influential role in constructing our version of what we consider normal. </p>
<h2>Imposter!</h2>
<p>What’s more, the “imposter phenomenon” suggests that a sense of “not being good enough” constrains some women, to the point where it actually limits their ability to achieve. Researchers Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes found that <a href="http://www.paulineroseclance.com/pdf/ip_high_achieving_women.pdf">the imposter phenomenon</a> is particularly prominent in high-achieving women, whose sense of anxiety about being “found out” as a fraud limits further achievement, due to motivation-crushing stress. In effect, successful women can unconsciously sabotage their own capacity to achieve even greater success. </p>
<p>Again, the social construction of what women know to be normal can inhibit their capacity to internalise and credit themselves with their achievement and instead, see their success as luck, a mistake or allowed as the token female offered favours to make up the numbers. </p>
<p>It is ironic, then, that while women candidates <a href="https://theconversation.com/best-ever-election-for-women-gives-britain-a-more-balanced-cabinet-41718">fared well</a> in this election, it was still the responsibility of male-dominated commentary panels to explain that to us.</p>
<h2>A productivity problem</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gaping-productivity-hole-in-osbornes-election-budget-39028">productivity crisis</a> currently faced by Britain demands that all players make a greater, more efficient contribution to the workforce. This effort is hampered if a proportion of the workforce is working below capacity due to real but unconscious psychological barriers, which prevent them from reaching their full potential.</p>
<p>Despite decades of action to remove structural barriers to women’s participation in the workforce, <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/participation-rates-in-the-uk-labour-market/2014/art-2-women.html#tab-Participation-of-women-by-qualification-and-job">recent ONS statistics</a> show that only around 8% of women occupy managerial, directorial and senior official positions. In March, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/06/johns-davids-and-ians-outnumber-female-chief-executives-in-ftse-100">The Guardian reported</a> that you’re twice as likely to find a man called David in the CEO’s role, than a woman. The seven female CEOs of FTSE 100 firms are outnumbered almost three to one by people with “Sir” in their title. </p>
<p>Statistics like these have been repeated time and time again, like a broken record playing over the past 30 years. We have anti-discrimination law and workplace policy that diminishes the risk of overt discrimination in the workplace. We have access to flexible working practices and return to work programmes for women after childbirth. Why is the tune not changing?</p>
<p>This is as much an economic issue as a gendered one. The underemployment, part time work and unrealised potential of women in the workforce constrains productivity and excludes many from making a full contribution, particularly in senior roles. And without visible role models in senior and “non-traditional” positions, the expectation that women won’t or can’t populate those roles is perpetuated.</p>
<p>These are some of the reasons we see men on our election panels, doing the hard thinking, while women look after the decoration and chat. These psychological barriers are underpinned by what we see in the media, and supported by social norms that take generations to shift. It’s ingrained, and it’s wrong. Until we see this sort of unconscious bias challenged and acted upon, we will never see our women fully able to achieve, and to make a full contribution to economic imperatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theresa Simpkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You might think you’re unbiased - but the general election should make you think again.Theresa Simpkin, Head of Department, Leadership and Management, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/358012015-01-29T11:02:14Z2015-01-29T11:02:14ZVirtual bodyswapping reduces bias against other races<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70235/original/image-20150128-12470-nhl6y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How does feeling you inhabit a body different than your own affect your racial biases?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Maister et al.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1959, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/27/black-like-me-john-howard-griffin">John Howard Griffin</a>, a white American writer, underwent medical treatments to change his skin appearance and present himself as a black man. He then traveled through the segregated US south to experience the racism endured daily by millions of black Americans. This unparalleled life experiment provided invaluable insights into how the change in Griffin’s own skin color triggered negative and racist behaviors from his fellow Americans.</p>
<p>But what about the changes that Griffin himself might have experienced? What does it mean to become someone else? How does this affect one’s self? And how can this affect one’s stereotypes, beliefs and racial attitudes? That was the key question that my colleagues and I set out to answer in a series of psychological experiments that looked at the link between our bodies and our sense of who we are.</p>
<h2>Is this my body?</h2>
<p>Can I trick you into thinking that a fake hand is part of your body? When I ask my students or friends, the immediate reaction I get is one of disbelief, followed by a definite “no.” However, we’ve learned from experimental psychology that it’s actually quite easy to trick your brain into thinking that a fake hand is indeed part of you.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TCQbygjG0RU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Watch a subject experiencing the rubber hand illusion.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Rubber Hand Illusion, as it came to be known, is based on a simple mechanism of sensory integration that shows how malleable the sense of our body is. As a participant in my experiment, I would ask you to sit in front of a table and place your right hand behind a screen so that you cannot directly see it. I would then place a prosthetic rubber hand in front of you and ask you to look at it. Now the trick is that with two paintbrushes I start stroking gently your own hand, while simultaneously stroking the rubber hand at exactly the same location. In this way, you feel touch in your own hand, which you cannot see, and you see touch on the fake hand.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70236/original/image-20150128-12432-uamcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70236/original/image-20150128-12432-uamcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70236/original/image-20150128-12432-uamcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70236/original/image-20150128-12432-uamcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70236/original/image-20150128-12432-uamcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70236/original/image-20150128-12432-uamcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70236/original/image-20150128-12432-uamcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70236/original/image-20150128-12432-uamcm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A light-skinned participant experiences a dark hand as part of his own body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Maister et al.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This situation creates a conflict for the brain, precisely because you feel something in one location and see something very similar – the touch on the fake hand – in a different location. Brains don’t like conflicts, and your brain will try to solve the conflict by using the sensory information available. Since we tend to put more stock in what we see, your brain will start creating the illusion that the sensation you feel in your own hand is actually caused by the touch you see on the fake hand. If this is the origin of your sensation, then<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/35784">the fake hand must be yours</a>!</p>
<p>The illusion is strong and some of its effects are remarkable. For example, it has been shown that once you experience the illusion, the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0803768105">skin temperature on your hand drops</a>, suggesting that the brain downregulates the homeostasis of your own hand since it now has a new hand to take care of. Interestingly, we also found that people experience the illusion independent of differences in skin color between their own hand and the rubber hand. These striking findings inspired us to ask some important questions about the ways in which we relate socially to other people.</p>
<h2>Changing bodies</h2>
<p>Walking down the street, our attention is constantly and automatically attracted to other people, especially their faces and appearance; these are very salient social stimuli. Additionally, we’re capable of making split-second decisions about others – whether we like them or not, whether we would trust them or not, whether they are similar to us or not, and by extension whether they belong to the same group as us or not.</p>
<p>Such decisions often influence and to a certain extent bias our behavior towards them. For example, we tend to trust people more who we perceive to be physically similar to us. The same goes for perceived similarity in personality traits. It seems that our brain constantly computes the perceived physical or psychological similarity between self and others to gauge our behavior.</p>
<p>What if you could, for a moment have the body of another race, sex or age compared to your own? Would that make you perceive people of another race, sex or age as more similar to you? Would that change the way you feel about yourself or the way that you stereotype different social groups? By combining illusions – including the Rubber Hand Illusion – that change the way our brain represents our body, we were able to test whether a change in your self would result in a change in your implicit racial bias.</p>
<p>We did not want explicitly to ask our participants whether they were racist because we could easily anticipate their answers. Instead, we used a well known social psychological test, the <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/uk/">Implicit Association Test</a> or IAT for short. It’s designed to measure the strength of association between different categories, such as Black or White people and pleasant or unpleasant concepts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70268/original/image-20150128-22325-1wgk2ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70268/original/image-20150128-22325-1wgk2ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70268/original/image-20150128-22325-1wgk2ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70268/original/image-20150128-22325-1wgk2ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70268/original/image-20150128-22325-1wgk2ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70268/original/image-20150128-22325-1wgk2ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70268/original/image-20150128-22325-1wgk2ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70268/original/image-20150128-22325-1wgk2ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One screen participants would see in an IAT about race.They’re asked to sort the face to the left or the right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Manos Tsakiris</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the typical IAT procedure, the word “Black” appears in the top left corner of the screen and the word “White” appears in the top right corner. In the middle of the screen a “Black” or a “White” face appears and participants must sort the face into the appropriate category by pressing the appropriate left or right key. In addition to faces, other positive or negative attributes can also be used. </p>
<p>We can measure how fast people are at categorizing black faces when these are paired with unpleasant or pleasant concepts. If people hold negative implicit attitudes towards black people, they should have strong associations between unpleasant concepts and black faces. As a result, they should be faster at categorizing black faces when these are paired with unpleasant concepts, and should be slower when black faces are paired with pleasant concepts. We can therefore measure people’s performance in the IAT and estimate how negatively or positively biased they are against black people.</p>
<p>In a series of studies that we run in my <a href="http://www.pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/lab/">lab</a> as well as in the lab of <a href="http://www.melslater.me/">Prof Mel Slater</a>, we first used this simple test to measure the implicit racial bias in large samples of white Caucasian adult participants. As expected, they showed small but nevertheless negative biases towards black people. Next, we used different kinds of bodily illusions to make people experience that they have a body of dark skin color. For example, participants experienced that their <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.04.002">hand</a>, their face or their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ONr8fiB-vA">whole body</a> in a virtual reality environment was black.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_5dG6JaneC4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A woman feels the sensation she sees happening to a different face.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once they experienced the illusion of having a different body, we gave them again the same test of implicit bias. For white people who were made to feel that they had black bodies, their negative biases against black people diminished. In <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1306779110">similar experiments</a>, adults who felt as if they had children’s bodies processed perceptual information and aspects of themselves as being more child-like.</p>
<h2>Changing minds</h2>
<p>One basic function that underlies many of our social interactions is computing the perceived physical or psychological similarity between ourselves and others. By changing how people represent themselves internally, we probably allowed them to experience others as being more similar to them. This in turn resulted in a reduction in their negative implicit biases.</p>
<p>In other words, the integration of different sensory signals can allow the brain to update its model of the body and cause people to change their attitudes about others.</p>
<p>Often formed at an early age, negative racial attitudes are thought to remain relatively stable throughout adulthood. Few studies have looked into whether implicit social biases can change. The converging evidence that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.11.001">we report</a> shows that we can positively alter such biases by exploiting the way the brain integrates sensory information from our bodies. Such findings can motivate new research into how self-identity is constructed and how the boundaries between ingroups and outgroups might be altered.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Immersive virtual reality enhances the illusion of embodying a different body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Maister et al.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From a societal point of view, our methods and findings might help us understand how to approach phenomena such as racism, racial and religious hatred, and gender inequality and discrimination. There is no simple cure for racism, of course. But together with the increased accessibility of virtual reality technologies, our experiments can be easily transformed into engaging educational tools that could allow participants to experience the world from the perspective of someone different from themselves.</p>
<p>This feeling of being a different person or a member of a different group allows us to understand that “we are more alike… than we are unalike,” as Maya Angelou famously wrote. How can such changes be effected in society? This is a fundamental political question, one that has not been answered for some thousand years now, but experiencing the world through someone else’s body might be a small but important step towards more integration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35801/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Manos Tsakiris receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC-2010-StG-262853) for the Plastic Self Project</span></em></p>In 1959, John Howard Griffin, a white American writer, underwent medical treatments to change his skin appearance and present himself as a black man. He then traveled through the segregated US south to…Manos Tsakiris, Professor of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/339742014-11-12T10:44:06Z2014-11-12T10:44:06ZPeople like us: how our brains view others<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64162/original/64s4k4mh-1415648621.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Race is one way we categorize ourselves among in-groups and out-groups.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-219184798/stock-photo-multicultural-children-s-hands-in-a-circle-instagram-effect.html?src=pd-same_artist-214707637-qdh8B0NLSSz4VPSSFlEE9A-1">Hands image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Race-related demonstrations, Title IX disputes, affirmative action court cases, same-sex marriage bans. </p>
<p>These issues made headlines in all spheres of the media this year. However, thoughtful articles on these subjects seem always to devolve to pitting warring factions against each other: black vs white, women vs men, gay vs straight. </p>
<p>At the most fundamental level of biology, we recognize the innate advantage of defining differences in species. But even within species, is there something in our neural circuits that leads us to find comfort in those like us and unease with those who may differ?</p>
<h2>Brain battle between distrust and reward</h2>
<p>Like all animals, our brains balance two primordial systems: one that includes a brain region called the amygdala that generates fear and distrust of those things that pose a danger (think predators); the other, a group of connected structures called the mesolimbic system, that gives rise to pleasure and feelings of reward that make it more likely we will flourish and survive (think food). But how do these systems interact to influence how we form our concepts of community?</p>
<p>Through <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">implicit association tests</a> which uncover the strength of subliminal associations – for example, white=good, black=bad – scientists have shown that many of us harbor an implicit preference for our in-group (those like us), even when we show no outward or obvious signs of bias. Are such associations learned? Are they in some way hardwired? And either way, do they reflect conflicting activity of the amygdala vs the mesolimbic system?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are plenty of ways to define who’s in-group and who’s out-group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_sheep-1.jpg">Jesus Solana</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Distrust of ‘others’</h2>
<p>Research into how the amygdala responds when we assess the relative importance of race is nuanced and complex. Studies must take into account the differences between explicit and implicit measures of race attitudes, as well as the impact of cultural bias and individual variation. Still, most research suggests that signaling variations within the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3864590/">amygdala</a> are responsible for the way we measure trust in implicit in-group vs out-group preference.</p>
<h2>Reward from ‘sameness’</h2>
<p>Reward, on the other hand, is encoded in our brains by loops of neurons within a circuit called the mesolimbic system. These neurons control the release of the transmitter dopamine, which is associated with an enhanced sense of pleasure. The addictive nature of some drugs, gaming and gambling depends on increases in the activity of these neurons. </p>
<p>The neural circuits that govern social behavior and reward arose early in vertebrate evolution and are present in birds, reptiles, bony fishes and amphibians, as well as mammals. So far there’s not a lot of information on reward pathway activity in people during in-group vs out-group social situations, but there are some tantalizing results from studies on these other <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21800319">animals</a>.</p>
<p>In recent <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4123133/">work</a>, neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth and his colleagues at Stanford combined genetics and behavioral tests with a <a href="http://www.biotechniques.com/BiotechniquesJournal/2014/July/OPTOGENETICS-TURNS-10/biotechniques-352735.html?pageNum=1">cutting-edge approach</a> called fiber photometry where light can turn on and off specific cells. Using this process, the researchers were able to both stimulate and measure activity in identified neurons in the reward pathways, with an exquisite degree of precision. As important, they were able to do this in mice as they behaved in social settings.</p>
<p>They showed that neural signaling in a specific group of these dopamine neurons within these mesolimbic reward loops are jazzed up when a mouse encounters a new mouse – one it’s never met before, but that is of its own genetic line. Is this dopamine reward reaction the mouse corollary of human in-group recognition?</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are you like me or not?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Field_Vole_by_Bruce_McAdam.jpg">Bruce McAdam</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What if the mouse were of a different genetic line with different external characteristics? What about with other small mammals such as <a href="http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/content/21/2/146">voles</a> who have dramatically different social relationships depending upon whether they are the type that lives in the prairie or in the mountains? Would the mesolimbic neurons still light up in recognition, or would the differences tip the balance toward the amygdala expressing fear and distrust?</p>
<p>We don’t know how these subtle differences in animals might affect how their neural circuits promote social responses, but by studying them, we may better understand how our own brain systems contribute to the implicit and unconscious bias we feel towards those in our own species who are nonetheless somewhat different.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Higher brain functions can override more primitive instincts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-103381424/stock-photo-brain-cerebrum-anatomy-cross-section.html?src=csl_recent_image-3">Brain image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Neural signaling is not destiny</h2>
<p>Even if evolution has tilted the balance toward our brains rewarding “like” and distrusting “difference,” this need not be destiny. Activity in our brains is malleable, allowing higher order circuits in the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20303254">cortex</a> to modify the more primitive fear and reward systems to produce different behavioral outcomes.</p>
<p>Author <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</a> eloquently relates that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Stereotypes reduce those not exactly like us to only their differences.</p>
<h2>Diversity’s value</h2>
<p>Why would we put up with the discomfort that differences evoke, rather than always selecting the easy reward with sameness? In his book, The Difference, <a href="http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/%7Espage/">Scott Page</a> provides mathematical evidence that although diverse individuals are less trusting of one other, when working together, they are more productive. </p>
<p>From cracking the Enigma code in WWII to predicting stock prices, Page provides data to demonstrate that a diversity of perspectives produces better innovation and better solutions than the smartest set of like-minded experts. In short, diversity trumps ability.</p>
<p>So let’s acknowledge the amygdalar distrust that differences evoke. Then, while we may not get that same boost of dopamine, let’s recognize that when it comes to what will promote the greatest good, working with those “not like us” has its own rewards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33974/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leslie Henderson has/does received funding from The National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Race-related demonstrations, Title IX disputes, affirmative action court cases, same-sex marriage bans. These issues made headlines in all spheres of the media this year. However, thoughtful articles on…Leslie Henderson, Professor of Physiology & Neurobiology and Senior Associate Dean at The Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/108262012-12-27T22:17:44Z2012-12-27T22:17:44ZAre you racist? You may be without even knowing it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18690/original/xg5hxrmn-1355459725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our implicit associations reveal more about our true attitudes than what we explicitly state.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/idiots-captured-on-coward-camera-20121121-29pba.html">infamous Youtube video</a> capturing a young man abusing women on a Melbourne bus for the crime of singing in French, and being supported in his violent tirade by fellow passengers, raises the uncomfortable question – are Australians racists? </p>
<p>Most of us acknowledge our shameful history of racism, including genocidal violence directed against the first inhabitants of this continent, but we hope we’ve left those dark days far behind us.</p>
<p>I don’t know how common overt racism of the kind captured on the video is today. Questions like that are notoriously difficult to answer, in part because people are often reluctant to express their true attitudes when they know that many others disapprove of them.</p>
<p>I’m going to suggest, however, that a great many of us, almost certainly an overwhelming majority, are home to a range of biases, including xenophobia and racism, which dispose us to think badly of how things are done elsewhere or by people who we don’t think of as belonging to our in-group. I’m not going to suggest that most Australians are racist; I’m not going to suggest that <em>you</em> are racist. </p>
<p>I think the evidence I will cite doesn’t settle that question. In fact, whether you are racist may be less important than we tend to think.</p>
<p>It’s not easy to say what exactly it takes to be a racist. It’s usually not hard, though, to recognise racists; that’s why the Youtube video is so shocking. If someone believes that members of some racial group are less intelligent, or more lazy, or less moral, than members of their own racial group, they are racist. </p>
<p>Some cases are harder to classify – what do we say about the person who thinks that members of some cultures are inferior in some way? Sometimes, this kind of belief is a rationalisation of racism, sometimes it may not be. Psychologists call the kind of beliefs in question here explicit attitudes. An explicit attitude is an attitude that the person can express and stand by, and which they assert as theirs. </p>
<p>But explicit attitudes are not the only kind of attitudes there are. We also have implicit attitudes, and our implicit attitudes may also – or instead – be the source of bias. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18693/original/fqsr42g9-1355459957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18693/original/fqsr42g9-1355459957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18693/original/fqsr42g9-1355459957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18693/original/fqsr42g9-1355459957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18693/original/fqsr42g9-1355459957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18693/original/fqsr42g9-1355459957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18693/original/fqsr42g9-1355459957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A grab from the video of the racial abuse on a Melbourne bus in November.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Nayna/YouTube</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We discover what someone’s explicit attitudes are by asking her. Honest answers to questions like “do you think Aboriginals (or Africans, or whatever) are as intelligent as whites?” will reveal her explicit attitudes. You can discover your explicit attitudes in exactly the same kind of way. But it can take some work to discover someone’s implicit attitudes.</p>
<p>There are various techniques scientists use to measure implicit attitudes. One of the most popular is the Implicit Association Test. You can do such a test yourself; the researchers at <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">Project Implicit</a> have made many available on the web (including <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Study?tid=-1">one</a> that tests for implicit associations with regard to Aboriginal and white Australians). </p>
<p>An Implicit Association Test measures speed in associating pairs of concepts. For instance, you might press one key if presented either with a picture of an Aboriginal face or with the word for a positive concept (“laughter”; “wonderful”; “joy”) and another key if presented with a white face or the word for a negative concept (“pain”; “awful”; “evil”). </p>
<p>The position of every element switches around – sometimes the left key is white/bad, sometimes it is white/good, sometimes Aboriginal/bad and sometimes Aboriginal/good. By measuring the speed of button presses, researchers are able to measure the strength of the association in an individual between positive and negative concepts and white and black faces (or pictures of males versus females, or words describing gay men and women, or whatever else they are interested in measuring).</p>
<p>Here’s the interesting finding: implicit and explicit attitudes don’t always travel hand in hand. It’s quite common for someone who on every explicit measure is clearly not racist to nevertheless be quicker to associate positive concepts with white faces than with black faces, and quicker to associate negative concepts with black faces than with white faces. </p>
<p>In fact, most white Americans show a moderate preference for white faces over black faces, as measured by Implicit Association Test scores. That doesn’t mean that most white Americans are racist. I think there are good reasons to identify people’s real attitudes with their explicit attitudes (though the issues here are complex). </p>
<p>One reason for caution is that having negative implicit attitudes to a particular group is by no means confined to people outside that group. Though black Americans have more variable implicit attitudes toward black faces than do white Americans, many black Americans have negative implicit attitudes too. Similarly, many gay men and women have negative implicit attitudes toward homosexuality; many women have negative implicit attitudes toward women, and so on.</p>
<p>The explanation for why people have implicit attitudes that differ from their explicit attitudes is controversial, but it’s widely accepted that it has a lot to do with the stereotypes that are prevalent in a culture. </p>
<p>If you live in the United States, you can’t help being bombarded with suggestions that there’s an association between black people and crime. If you live in Australia, you can’t help being bombarded with suggestions that women are highly emotional and irrational. These “suggestions” may not be delivered in the form of statements or claims; they are embedded in cultural stereotypes, in jokes and sitcoms, in the taken-for-granted background of everyday gossip. </p>
<p>They may be transmitted by people who don’t believe them, and who don’t even realise that they are transmitting the message (the fact that this kind of stereotype can be transmitted unconsciously helps to explain why parents who try to raise their children “gender-free” rarely meet with great success). Absorbing these stereotypes leads to the laying down of associations, which might result in activation patterns: being presented with a black face (say) activates related concepts (perhaps unconsciously) and the fact that they’re active affects mental processes. </p>
<p>That’s what an implicit association is – an association between one concept and another, meaning that having one active is likely to make the other active too, consciously or unconsciously.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18691/original/smpxc6sz-1355459894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18691/original/smpxc6sz-1355459894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18691/original/smpxc6sz-1355459894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18691/original/smpxc6sz-1355459894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18691/original/smpxc6sz-1355459894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18691/original/smpxc6sz-1355459894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18691/original/smpxc6sz-1355459894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>Given that, as I have claimed, there are good grounds for identifying people’s real attitudes with their explicit attitudes, why does it matter what their implicit attitudes are? Here’s why – having an attitude activated affects our further thinking processes, and that can result in biased thought and behaviour. </p>
<p>Good people, people sincerely opposed to racism, for instance, can find themselves acting in ways that express racial biases. They can do this without even knowing it.</p>
<p>Since the 1970s, cognitive and social psychologists have gradually been revealing the extent to which our thought and behaviour is completely shot through by unconscious processes. The unconscious that psychologists study is not the Freudian unconscious, made up of thoughts we dare not acknowledge even to ourselves. Rather, it’s simply mental processing that is carried out efficiently by the brain below the level of awareness. </p>
<p>This is the processing that allows us to drive while thinking of other things, and which alerts us if an unexpected situation calls for attention (a dog runs out into the road for instance). It’s the processing that allows me to type while thinking about what to say, leaving both finger movements and grammar to sort themselves out.</p>
<p>Psychologists have demonstrated time and again that unconscious processes handle the bulk of execution of our movements and a great deal of the actual reasoning processes themselves. Things we are not conscious of seeing – which we can’t report, for instance – influence our subsequent behaviour, by altering how we process information and what comes to mind. </p>
<p>Things we’re conscious of may also influence us, without our being conscious either that or how they influence us. </p>
<p>Take the phenomenon of behavioural priming. In one <a href="http://www.yale.edu/acmelab/articles/bargh_chen_burrows_1996.pdf">famous experiment</a>, the subjects unscrambled words to make sentences. One group of subjects got sentences that contained words that suggested elderly people: “wise”; “knits”; “Florida” (this was an American experiment); “grey”; “wrinkled”, and so on. </p>
<p>The other group got scrambled sentences that didn’t contain words like this. After the experiment was ostensibly over, the experiments timed how fast the participants moved as they left the lab. Participants who unscrambled sentences containing words that suggested elderly people walked more slowly than the participants in the other group. </p>
<p>What seems to have happened is that the words suggesting elderly people “primed” the elderly stereotype, and led to behaviour that was influenced by it. This effect may be independent of whether people believe that elderly people walk more slowly than younger. As a matter of fact, they probably did believe it. But the activation of the stereotype may be enough to influence behaviour.</p>
<p>Because the activation of the stereotype can be unconscious, and because its effects can be unconscious, we may not know that, or how, it is altering our behaviour. We may confabulate, as psychologists say, a good reason for what we are doing, when in fact the explanation is a bad reason, or no reason at all. </p>
<p>Human beings are creatures for whom reasons are important; when we don’t have a good reason to tell ourselves, we often make one up (without realising that’s what we’re doing). </p>
<p>One nice example <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/310/5745/116.full">comes from a study</a> that asked male subjects to pick the photo of a woman they liked better from a pair of photos. In some trials, the experimenter used a magician’s trick to hand the subject the other photo. The subject was then asked to explain why he preferred it. </p>
<p>The majority of the subjects failed to notice the switch, and confabulated reasons why they chose the picture they had been given (saying, for example, that they chose the picture of the blonde “because I prefer blondes”, when in fact they had chosen the picture of the brunette). Because confabulation may involve the production of a plausible story, we may have good consciences, even when our actions express racist or sexist implicit attitudes.</p>
<p>Here’s an example of how this kind of thing can occur, from a <a href="http://socialjudgments.com/docs/Uhlmann%20and%20Cohen%202005.pdf">2005 American study</a>. In this study, participants were asked to choose the better applicant for the job of police chief. There were two candidates. One was “street wise” while the other had more formal education. One was male, one was female. Some experimental subjects were given the choice between a male street wise applicant and a female formally educated applicant, while some got the options reversed, with the female applicant being the street wise one. </p>
<p>Here’s the interesting finding – both groups tended to pick the male applicant as the better qualified. They justified this choice by reference to the qualification the female lacked. So the participants who got the female street wise applicant preferred the male, because (they said) formal education matters more for police chief than street experience (after all, we’re not hiring a beat cop). </p>
<p>Meanwhile, participants who got the female formally educated applicant preferred the male because (they said) it is beat experience that matters for the job – how can you run a police department unless you have policing in your bones?</p>
<p>What’s going on here is that people’s implicit attitudes are altering their perception of what skills and qualifications are needed for a job. People judged that a particular qualification was relevant only because they had sexist assumptions, about women and policing. But they couldn’t detect the processes at work in them. </p>
<p>From their perspective, it looked as though they were making a judgement based on what qualifications they thought were required for police chief. They weren’t really: they were making a judgement based on gender, and justifying it, based on a confabulated theory about what qualifications were required for police chief. When they looked at their judgements, they saw a plausible story about qualifications. </p>
<p>How would they know that the story was driven by their implicit attitudes? Interestingly, in this study the experimenters asked the participants how confident they were that their judgement was objective. Those who were most confident that they were objective showed the most bias.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18692/original/hvh84kzr-1355459934.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18692/original/hvh84kzr-1355459934.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18692/original/hvh84kzr-1355459934.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18692/original/hvh84kzr-1355459934.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18692/original/hvh84kzr-1355459934.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18692/original/hvh84kzr-1355459934.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18692/original/hvh84kzr-1355459934.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>It took careful experimental work to show that the judgement was driven by sexist attitudes. We can’t say of any particular participant that their judgement was caused by sexism (though we have grounds for suspicion). It’s the overall pattern across all the groups that tells us that sexism was a very important factor. But obviously, when you or I are making a decision – deciding on job applicants, or who to vote for, or making up our minds about a newspaper story – we don’t have this kind of data available. </p>
<p>It’s difficult to counter the effects of implicit attitudes which conflict with our explicit beliefs. The first step is to recognise that we have them. By making Implicit Association Tests available, the people at Project Implicit have done us a service. Doing such a test induces humility. If (most) everyone recognised that they had some implicit biases, we might be less quick to condemn, less quick to blame others for their troubles, and a little more accepting that discrimination – not necessarily conscious – helps to explain gross inequalities. </p>
<p>We can also begin the hard work of trying to alter our biases. Here again, we must be humble: few people manage entirely to free themselves of biases. They are often acquired very early (we all learn the cultural stereotypes associated with gays, and women, and Aborigines, and other groups, very early, and learning them may be enough to cause some biases in unconscious processes). We counter these biases not by rational argument but by setting up new associations. </p>
<p>If the only Aborigines you ever encounter are those depicted on commercial news stations, your associations will probably never be positive. It’s only if the images change that new associations have a chance to form. People often complain about political correctness, but these complaints may be based (in part) on an unrealistically rosy picture of human rationality. Below the level of rational argument, stereotypes do their work.</p>
<p>It’s quite likely that implicit associations play a role in explicit negative attitudes toward particular people. Think of the incredible vitriol directed toward Julia Gillard. A confabulatory process may well be at work in some or even most of the people who chant “Ju-liar”. Negative implicit attitudes toward women may bias them toward thinking worse of her government and policies than they would have had she been a man. But because they have no access to the processes that colour their perceptions, they attribute the cause to her policies and her character. </p>
<p>Tony Abbott was incensed to be called misogynist recently. Perhaps his conscience, and those of many of his supporters, are clear: they look within to the causes of their negative assessments of Gillard and find only intense dislike of her policies, and therefore a strong negative attitude toward the woman who implements them. But they cannot tell, by looking within, whether their dislike of policies and person is not significantly strengthened by their implicit attitudes. </p>
<p>Our thought – all of us, even the most well-intentioned, the most careful, the most intelligent and well-educated – may be shot through with bias. The images with which we surround ourselves (and advertising is particularly pervasive and egregious in this regard, especially as concerns sexism) may produce stereotypes that subtly and not so subtly undermine our commitments to equality. </p>
<p>We never rise above these influences – all our thought remains utterly dependent on unconscious processes. We live in an environment that is polluted. We breathe this stuff in all the time. Perhaps it’s time for a cleanup.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Levy receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Templeton Foundation.</span></em></p>The infamous Youtube video capturing a young man abusing women on a Melbourne bus for the crime of singing in French, and being supported in his violent tirade by fellow passengers, raises the uncomfortable…Neil Levy, Head of Neuroethics, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental HealthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.