Basic and Translational Research to Combat Stereotypes and Unintentional Biases

对抗刻板印象和无意偏见的基础和转化研究

Basic and Translational Research to Combat Stereotypes and Unintentional Biases Automatically activated stereotypes give rise to unintentional (implicit) biases in people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, even when such biases are strongly opposed by social norms, personal convictions, and objective evidence. Stereotypes and unintentional biases have been implicated as an important social justice issue with consequences for the mental and physical health of members of stigmatized groups. Stereotypes and uninten- tional biases also create barriers to scientific progress by contributing to the underrepresentation of racial minori- ties and women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. In response to these social, health, and scientific issues, the NIH and nearly every other scientific organization has called for effective interventions to address unintentional biases (NIH, 2015). Many of the responses to these calls, however, have taken the form of interventions that are not grounded in scientific theory and evidence — absent a deeper understanding of human cognition rooted in basic cognitive science, these interventions often seek to address the symptoms of bias with- out treating their underlying causes. Although well-intentioned, these efforts at best do not work and at worst make bias problems worse (Paluck & Green, 2009). The sole intervention that has been empirically demonstrated to produce lasting, meaningful bias reductions is the prejudice habit-breaking intervention, which my colleagues and I have developed and tested experimentally in recent years. The initial success of the prejudice habit-break- ing intervention arises from its strong empirical evidence base. Its scientific model of cognitive and behavioral change builds upon decades of basic research into the mechanisms of stereotyping and unintentional bias. This work powerfully demonstrates why both basic and translational research are needed to effectively combat bias. Stereotyping and biases are supported by the same learning mechanisms that contribute to learning and cognition about non-social targets. Much of my past and future research draws on basic cognitive neuroscience to develop and test novel hypotheses about how specific learning mechanisms (e.g., Hebbian and reward/aver- sion learning) contribute to the persistence of stereotypes and unintentional biases. With a better understanding of the basic processes that make stereotypes resistant to change, I can then enhance my translational work with the prejudice habit-breaking intervention to better address those sources of resistance. In this way, my basic and translational work is synergistic, advancing knowledge around mechanisms of stereotype persistence and im- proving and testing interventions to reduce stereotyping and unintentional biases. As a MIRA investigator, I would 1) expand our knowledge of how basic learning mechanisms perpetuate stereotypes and unintentional biases, and 2) translate basic work to enhance the effectiveness of the prejudice habit-breaking intervention, and 3) conduct expanded experimental field-testing of the intervention in collabora- tion with my campus's administration, using the University of Wisconsin - Madison as a living laboratory.