Most people do not want to admit to using
stereotypes or having any prejudices against other races. In fact, much of
today’s society would like us to believe that racism is a thing of the past and
no longer in practice. As far as we have come as a nation, racism has
unfortunately not been completely eradicated, and continues to hinder the lives
of the numerous ethnic groups living in America. Interestingly, much of this
racism may not be overt, meaning that the people who are discriminating against
other races may not even know that they are doing so.
In fact,
Greenwald et al., (1998) began research on this very idea by examining implicit memory, which consists of
memories or beliefs that are not accessible to conscious awareness but can
affect our attitudes and behavior. To test implicit memory they created the
Implicit Association Test (IAT), which is a computer-based test which measures
automatic associations within a person’s memory.
During the
test, participants are instructed to rapidly match attributes such as happy with an image or another set of words, such as a picture of a
black person’s face or the word African
American paired with the category good,
versus a picture of a white person’s face or the word European American paired with the category bad. The idea behind these pairings is that people will pair words
more rapidly with certain images or other words if they have an unconscious association
between those items. For example, if a participant categorizes the word evil more quickly with the category of African American paired with good then with the category of European American and bad, then it follows that they may hold
some implicit beliefs that African Americans are bad or evil.
As previously stated, these implicit beliefs may be
unconscious, but they may also reveal deep seeded beliefs that people might try
to hide due to social desirability. Social desirability bias is a theory
that describes people’s tendency to act in ways that are socially acceptable,
even if their true beliefs contradict their behaviors, in order to avoid being
socially outcast (Zerbe & Paulhus, 1987). Because most people would not want to be seen
as racist, they may self-report that they like all races equally, or act
friendly to people of other races when in the social sphere; however, their
true feelings about other races may be different than what they portray.
In research on racism, one way to eliminate social
desirability bias is by using the IAT. Because the IAT tests unconscious or
hidden beliefs, it is possible to assess people’s true feelings about other
races. I recently took the Race IAT
and was very surprised with the results.
According to
my results I have a moderate automatic preference for European Americans. I was
actually inclined to disbelieve these results because I have always had a very
strong connection to people of other races, especially African Americans. I
know this sounds strange, but as a child I was extremely interested in learning
about slavery in America and the horrors that African American slaves suffered
due to my ancestors. I sought out as much information as I could on the subject
and every school project I completed seemed to fall under this theme. I was so
disgusted by the way these human beings were treated, and I empathized with
their pain. My heroes quickly became Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and many
other former slaves who were influential in helping African Americans break
through the chains that were placed upon them. I admired Abraham Lincoln for
putting an end to the horrible practice of slavery and for decreeing that all
men should be treated equally (even though I found out later that he wasn’t
exactly as anti-slavery as he was portrayed to be).
Throughout my adolescence I often made friends with
the minority kids and hung out with a very diverse ethnic crowd. Even though I
was white, I was a rather tall, skinny, and awkward looking teen, so I
identified with their feelings of being ostracized from the main social groups.
I also found that my non-Caucasian friends were more accepting, honest, and
genuine than many of the Caucasian girls at my school. The girls from my own
race were mean, fake, caddy, and judgmental. If you didn’t have the right
clothes or wear your hair the right way then you were belittled and laughed at.
So I found refuge with my African American, Hispanic, Asian, and mixed friends. They never made me feel
like an outcast.
Ever since, I have had countless friendships with
people of all races, and I truly love and embrace all of their unique
backgrounds and qualities. I feel that they enrich my life and have taught me
so many things that I would have missed out on if I had only had friends within
my own race/culture. Based on all of this background, it goes without saying
that I was not happy with the results of the IAT. Although I do believe in the
validity of the measure, I do not believe that results indicate that I am
unconsciously racist. I do feel that I have been socialized to associate
certain words with African Americans and European Americans, but these
associations do not override my deep beliefs that people of all colors deserve
to be treated equally. I may never really know if these implicit thoughts
affect my interactions with African Americans, but I truly believe that they do
not. After all, I have been socialized to associate many things, such as marriage with man and wife, but I am a strong advocate for gay marriage, and have
many friends and family members who are gay. I do not believe that these
learned associations, even if they are automatic in my mind, can alter my
decisions as to how I feel about or treat gay people. Implicit memories might
be powerful, but so is my free will; therefore, I choose to view my IAT results
as an opportunity to break through stereotypes and prejudice by being more
cognizant of how unconscious thoughts might affect my behavior with people of
other races.
n=1082
References
Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J.
K. L. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The
Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74,
1464-1480.
Zerbe,
W. J., & Paulhus, D. L. (1987). Socially desirable responding in
organizational behavior: A reconception. The Academy Of Management Review,
12(2), 250-264. doi:10.2307/258533
No comments:
Post a Comment