SBP: Implicit Bias: Separating Person and Context

内隐偏见是指将社会群体与评价或刻板印象联系起来的心理联想。研究表明，隐性种族偏见普遍存在，难以改变，这些关联可能会导致无意的歧视。然而，对于隐性偏见是否最好理解为一个人的特征，还是作为社会环境引起的不平等和陈规定型观念的结果，没有达成共识。内隐偏见是否作为一种个人态度起作用，从而可以从一个人的内隐偏见分数中预测他的行为？或者，它是否像语境的一个特征那样运作，以至于任何个体在经历某些语境时都会比其他语境有更大的内隐偏见？解决这些问题可以帮助组织做出更明智的决定，如何最好地减少不必要的差异。该项目包括三个纵向研究，以衡量稳定性和变化的内隐偏见随着时间的推移，并在不同的情况下。它测量了20个城市的内隐偏见，以了解分数在多大程度上取决于整个城市的背景，而不是组成该背景的个人。该项目衡量城市一级的变化，如反对种族歧视的抗议活动以及地方法令和纪念碑的变化，以了解这些变化是否伴随着隐性偏见的变化。它还考察了当个体从一个社会环境转移到另一个社会环境时，他们的内隐偏见水平是否会发生变化。这些问题的答案不太可能是内隐偏见完全反映了个人或背景。相反，该项目旨在量化每个人的贡献，以及人与环境如何相互作用。这项研究有助于了解隐性偏见的基本性质以及减少非故意歧视的最有希望的方向。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Implicit bias refers to mental associations linking social groups with evaluations or stereotypes. Research suggests that implicit race biases are widespread, difficult to change, and that these associations may contribute to unintended discrimination. There is no consensus, however, on whether implicit bias is best understood as a feature of a person, or as a consequence of inequalities and stereotypes cued by the social environment. Does implicit bias operate as an individual attitude, so that a person's behavior can be predicted from their implicit bias score? Or does it operate like a feature of the context, such that any individual would have greater implicit bias when passing through some contexts than others? Addressing these issues can help organizations make more informed decisions about how best to reduce unwanted disparities. This project consists of three longitudinal studies to measure stability and change in implicit bias over time, and across different contexts. It measures implicit bias across twenty cities to understand how much scores depend on the city-wide context, as opposed to the individuals who compose that context. The project measures city-level changes, such as protests against racial discrimination and changes in local ordinances and monuments, to understand whether such changes are followed by changes in implicit bias. And it examines whether individuals' level of implicit bias changes when they move from one social context to another. It is unlikely that the answers to these questions are that implicit bias entirely reflects the person or the context. Instead, the project aims to quantify the contributions of each, and how person and context interact with each other. This research contributes knowledge about the fundamental nature of implicit bias and the most promising directions for reducing unintended discrimination.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.