Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Social Roots of Implicit Racial Bias

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

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.