Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Social Roots of Implicit Racial Bias

该项目将探讨如何接触不同的人群，以及这些人群的威胁感，影响对非裔美国人的隐性种族偏见（IRB）。IRB是对一个种族群体的无意识偏好。它会影响行为，即使是那些没有意识到自己有这种偏好的人。IRB已被证明对教师和学生，医生和病人，警察和公众之间的互动产生负面影响。然而，五分之一的白色美国人对非洲裔美国人缺乏IRB。当这些人自发地行动时，他们相对不太可能导致有害的结果。在过去的研究中，心理学家已经确定了IRB的个人水平决定因素（例如，个性和认知机制）。心理学学者也发现了影响IRB的社会因素（例如，年龄，教育水平和居住地区）。然而，他们很少深入探讨社会因素。尽管心理学家已经指出IRB至少部分是由社会决定的，但社会学家通常不会研究这种偏见。就社会学家而言，他们已经研究了外显（即有意识的和表达的）偏见的决定因素。他们查明了造成这种偏见的一些原因，包括缺乏与非裔美国人的接触，以及对黑人人口的威胁感（直接的或象征性的）。虽然这项研究提供了明确的洞察外显偏见的决定因素，它没有确定内隐偏见的决定因素。揭示导致一些人产生隐性种族偏见的社会机制，而其他人则没有，可以产生最终有助于降低美国公众这种偏见水平的知识。这样的变化将显着改善生活机会的非洲裔美国人在整个美国。这项研究将填补现有的心理学文献（这往往离开IRB未探索的社会决定因素）和社会学文献（只专注于社会决定因素的显式偏见）留下的空白。具体来说，该项目将探讨如何与不同的其他人（种族，社会经济地位和宗教）和威胁的经验，这些其他人的影响反非裔美国人IRB之间的白色美国人。进一步弥合心理学和社会学文献的种族态度，研究人员将推进我们目前粗略的理解如何隐性偏见涉及当代形式的种族主义理论，社会学家已经理论化（“象征性”，“自由放任”和“色盲”种族主义）。该研究将使用内隐联想测试分数的原始数据集，深入访谈和调查，以进一步了解内隐种族偏见的社会决定因素。首先，375名不同的白色美国人将参加种族内隐联想测试（IRB的最常见的措施）。然后，30名持有反黑人IRB的受访者和30名缺乏反黑人IRB的受访者将完成与种族和性别匹配的采访者的深入采访。 最后，800名新的受访者将对IAT和一项旨在测试前两个研究阶段假设的调查作出回应。

This project will explore how contact with diverse populations, and feelings of threat by such populations, influence implicit racial bias (IRB) against African Americans. IRB is an unconscious preference for one racial group over another. It influences behavior, even among people who are not aware of holding any such preference. IRB has been shown to negatively impact interactions between teachers and students, doctors and patients, and police officers and members of the public. Yet, one in five White Americans lacks IRB against African Americans. These individuals are relatively unlikely to contribute to harmful outcomes when they behave spontaneously. In past research, psychologists have identified individual level determinants for IRB (for example, personality and cognitive mechanisms). Scholars of psychology have also identified social factors that influence IRB (for example, age, level of education, and region of esidence). Yet, they have rarely, if at all, explored social factors in depth. Even though psychologists have indicated that IRB is at least partially socially determined, sociologists have generally stopped short of studying this kind of bias. For their part, sociologists have researched the determinants of explicit (that is, conscious and expressed) bias. They have identified a number of causes for such bias, including lack of contact with African Americans, and feelings of threat (either direct or symbolic) vis-à-vis Black populations. While this research offers clear insight into the determinants of explicit bias, it does not identify the determinants of implicit bias as such. Uncovering the social mechanisms that lead some to develop implicit racial bias, while others do not, could produce knowledge that ultimately helps to reduce the levels of this bias across the American public. Such a change would significantly improve the life chances of African Americans throughout the United States.This research will fill gaps left by the existing psychology literature (which has often left the social determinants of IRB unexplored) and sociology literature (which has focused only on the social determinants of explicit bias). Specifically, the project will explore how contact with diverse others (by race, socioeconomic status, and religion) and experiences of threat by such others influence anti-African American IRB among White Americans. Further bridging the psychology and sociology literatures on racial attitudes, the researchers will advance our currently cursory understanding of how implicit bias relates to contemporary forms of racism theorized that sociologists have theorized ("symbolic," "laissez-faire," and "colorblind" racism). The study will use an original dataset of Implicit Association Test scores, in depth interviews, and a survey to further current knowledge about the social determinants of implicit racial bias. First, 375 diverse White Americans will take the Race Implicit Association Test (the most common measure of IRB). Then, 30 respondents who hold anti-Black IRB and 30 who lack it will complete in depth interviews with race and gender matched interviewers. Finally, 800 new respondents will respond to the IAT and a survey designed to test hypotheses from the first two phases of research.