Implicit associations, bias, and VA Senate race.

Post #269,886 by Another Scott 10/9/06 9:24:04 AM Reply	Implicit associations, bias, and VA Senate race. [link\|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/08/AR2006100800739.html\|Washington Post]: When people are deprived of conscious self-control in the studies, large numbers of Americans show automatic biases that can be picked up by brain imaging or by the startle reflex, as measured by blinking. Brain imaging studies show that when volunteers see photographs drawn from college yearbooks, black faces often trigger a larger response in the amygdala, which is involved in the regulation of fear. But you don't need complicated machinery. One experiment found that when volunteers in a group were confronted with an emergency situation, 75 percent came to the help of a white victim, but only 38 percent came to the aid of a black victim. Confronted by the results, people denied that racial bias had anything to do with it. Were they all lying? Some people do harbor deliberate prejudice, but it appears that most people are sincere in believing they are not biased. Another tool developed by Nosek and others detects unthinking bias by measuring the speed of people's mental associations. Millions have taken the Implicit Association Test. Large majorities of Americans, including people of color and other minorities, show a variety of biases they believe they do not have. The Implicit Association Tests are [link\|https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/\|here]. It's not really surprising that we have biases that we aren't aware of. I wonder, though, how much of our actions are determined by unconscious versus conscious bias. For instance, it's hard for me to believe that Allen's "macaca" comment was due to unconscious bias rather than a desire to bully someone who wasn't part of his team. Cheers, Scott. (Who the has a "moderate" bias against Arab-Muslims, according to the test. :-( )
Post #269,888 by bepatient 10/9/06 9:29:12 AM Reply	I wonder if the appropriate control experiment was done having blacks shown verious items, including white pictures? To me it sounds like base reaction to >difference< and would trigger like response from dress, surroundings etc... Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew}
Post #269,889 by Another Scott 10/9/06 9:31:37 AM Reply	Take the tests and find out. :-)
Post #269,907 by bepatient 10/9/06 11:44:41 AM Reply	Ok. I have a strong automatic preference for Tiger Woods. I wonder what that means? Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew}
Post #269,897 by inthane-chan 10/9/06 10:44:56 AM Reply	This is a sad topic for me. Growing up, I was raised with the idea that everybody was equal, and not to discriminate on the basis of the color of somebody's skin. I had many friends from many different ethnic backgrounds, and I can pretty safely say that I really did believe all that. Since entering the adult world, I've felt a strong bias growing inside of me, from personal experience. Most of the african-american people I've interacted with, starting from college, either screwed me over or tried to screw me over, starting with my roommate in college (didn't pay rent for five months, lease situation meant that either I paid it or I got screwed, and left me stuck with a $1000 long distance phone bill) and just going progressively downhill from there. Now, most of my interaction with black people has been with people from the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. I haven't had to deal with that many white people from the same group, and those that I have dealt with have been just as willing to try and screw me over. In general, the black people I've met who are doing okay financially are pretty decent people, with one exception - but I considered her an outlier and not statistically significant. I know that my subconscious reaction to black people is instinctively not to trust them. This saddens me because I know that the real key indicator is economic class, not racial status. Odoru aho ni miru aho! Onaji aho nara odoranya son son!
Post #269,955 by drewk 10/9/06 8:33:21 PM Reply	My results Your data suggest a strong association of Male with Career and Female with Family compared to Female with Career and Male with Family. Yup, not surprised. Not only is that the stereotype in our culture, it's what my wife and I do. === Kip Hawley is still an idiot. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]

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