Doctoral Dissertation Research: Explaining Public Opposition to Government Assistance Programs

政治学和心理学的大量研究表明，种族偏见是基于种族的政策反对的重要组成部分。一些研究表明，当种族诉求是微妙和隐蔽的时候，偏见最有可能发挥作用。其他研究认为，当种族是明确的时，人们使用更高层次的认知过程来抑制偏见的本能，并遵守平等的社会规范。换句话说，当人们被鼓励更多地思考种族政策时，他们应该能够认识到并抑制可能影响他们观点的种族偏见。本研究测试的论点，即更高层次的认知过程减少了偏见的作用，对研究假设，即更高层次的认知过程可能在某些情况下，加强，甚至加剧偏见的作用，因为有意识的动机，拒绝平等主义规范。本项目以社会神经科学为基础，使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）直接观察偏见影响政策态度的神经机制。A2（种族：白色vs.黑色）× 2（意识意识：内隐/无意识种族启动vs.外显/有意识启动）被试内实验被用来检验种族偏见对各种政府援助计划的支持的影响，当计划的受援者的种族是有意识和无意识已知的。PI假设，当种族是内隐的时，种族偏见会更强，并且这种关系是通过杏仁核和右杏仁核的活动增加以及前额叶皮层和前扣带皮层的活动减少来介导的。然而，PI预计，当种族明确时，种族偏见将存在。如果减少偏见的关键是让人们更多地考虑种族问题，那么这些偏见将是由于缺乏控制性处理，即使种族是通过前额叶皮层和前扣带皮层的较低激活水平以及杏仁核和右丘脑的活动增加来明确指示的。然而，如果控制过程有时会导致偏见的强化，那么政策支持中的种族偏见与前额叶皮层或前扣带皮层的激活之间就没有关系了。

General SummaryA great deal of research in political science and psychology shows that racial prejudice is a substantial component of race-based policy opposition. Some work suggests that prejudice is most likely to play a role when racial appeals are subtle and covert. Other work contends that people use higher-level cognitive processes to inhibit prejudiced instincts and abide by egalitarian social norms when race is explicit. In other words, when people are encouraged to think more about racial policies, they should be able to recognize and restrain the racial biases that might otherwise influence their opinions. This study test the contention that higher-level cognitive processes reduce the role of prejudice against the research hypothesis that higher-level cognitive processes may in some instances reinforce and even exacerbate the role of prejudice because of conscious motivations to reject egalitarian norms. Technical SummaryBuilding on work in social neuroscience, this project uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to directly observe the neural mechanisms by which prejudice influences policy attitudes. A 2 (race: White vs. Black) x 2 (conscious awareness: implicit/non-conscious racial primes vs. explicit/conscious primes) within-subjects experiment is used to examine the impact of racial biases on support for various government assistance programs when the race of the programs' recipients is consciously versus subconsciously known. The PI hypothesizes that racial biases will be stronger when race is implicit, and that this relationship is mediated by increased activity in the amygdala and right insula and decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. However, the PI expects that racial biases will exist when race is explicit. If the key to diminishing the role of prejudice is to get people to think more about race, these biases will be due to a lack of controlled processing even when race is explicitly indicated by lower levels of activation in the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex and increased activity in the amygdala and right insula. However, if controlled processes sometimes lead to reinforcement of prejudice, there will be no relationship between racial biases in policy support and activation in the prefrontal cortex or anterior cingulate cortex.