advertisement
Science News
from research organizations

Research questions link between unconscious bias and behavior

'Implicit bias' is often cited as the underlying cause of discrimination;a new look at the evidence suggests the connection isn't that strong

Date:
July 1, 2019
Source:
University of Arkansas
Summary:
Implicit bias, a term for automatically activated mental associations, is often seen as a primary cause of discrimination against social groups such as women and racial minorities. But a new look at the body of research questions the link between implicit bias and discriminatory behavior.
Share:
advertisement

FULL STORY

A new study calls into question the effectiveness of a popular concept for addressing social problems such as discrimination.

Implicit bias, a term for automatically activated associations, is often perceived to be a primary cause of discrimination against social groups such as women and racial minorities. Identifying and understanding implicit bias and modifying behavior that's based on it has long been a goal of those who seek to address such problems.

Patrick Forscher, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Arkansas, along with Calvin Lai, assistant professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, and five other co-authors, reviewed 492 studies on changing implicit bias involving 87,418 participants. The researchers' goal was to investigate procedures that attempted to change implicit bias. They found that while implicit bias can be changed, only a small percentage of the studies they looked at examined changes over time, or whether the changes affected behavior. The study was published in theJournal of Personality & Social Psychology.

"When you hear people talk about implicit bias in popular media, there is often this assumption that you do this implicit bias training and the effects stick around for a long time," Forscher said. "What we found is that barely any of the studies that we captured in our analysis even attempted to assess changes over time."

Millions of people interested in assessing their own implicit bias have taken self-administered tests such as the Implicit Association Test, available on the internet, and many companies have created programs to address issues that stem from implicit bias, such as gender pay gaps and hiring discrimination.

"The promise is that if I can change what produces the score I am solving this big problem," Forscher said. "It offers an individualistic, easy solution."

But the researchers found little evidence that implicit bias can be changed long term, and even less evidence that such changes lead to changes in behavior.

“我不认为这项研究是为应用做好准备ion," he said. "It could even be true that implicit bias doesn't have a strong impact on behavior. Even if this is not true we should not be using this body of research in its current state to inform public policy."

advertisement

Story Source:

Materialsprovided byUniversity of Arkansas.注意:内容可能被编辑风格d length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Patrick S. Forscher, Calvin K. Lai, Jordan R. Axt, Charles R. Ebersole, Michelle Herman, Patricia G. Devine, Brian A. Nosek.A meta-analysis of procedures to change implicit measures..Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2019; DOI:10.1037/pspa0000160

Cite This Page:

University of Arkansas. "Research questions link between unconscious bias and behavior: 'Implicit bias' is often cited as the underlying cause of discrimination;a new look at the evidence suggests the connection isn't that strong." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 July 2019. .
University of Arkansas. (2019, July 1). Research questions link between unconscious bias and behavior: 'Implicit bias' is often cited as the underlying cause of discrimination;a new look at the evidence suggests the connection isn't that strong.ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 2, 2023 from www.koonmotors.com/releases/2019/07/190701144324.htm
University of Arkansas. "Research questions link between unconscious bias and behavior: 'Implicit bias' is often cited as the underlying cause of discrimination;a new look at the evidence suggests the connection isn't that strong." ScienceDaily. www.koonmotors.com/releases/2019/07/190701144324.htm (accessed July 2, 2023).

Explore More
from ScienceDaily

RELATED STORIES

advertisement