Are we nurtured to be racist?
I am currently reading Blink by Malcom Gladwell and it is a fantastic book about the adaptive subconscious. I’m at a part of the book where we’re examining how our surroundings and experiences shape our subconscious to make us behave in a certain way or form certain types of opinions. Malcolm describes a test called the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to show how our subconscious plays a huge roll in our lives. I took the test that he suggested to take and I was astonished by the results:
Hopefully you can read my results. It says that I have a “strong automatic preference for European Americans than for African Americans.” This was crazy to me because one of my best friends from back home is black. Does this mean I’m racist?
You can try the test right here for yourself
(it is under the “Race IAT”)
No, this test does not mean that I am racist. It means that my environment and experiences have shaped my subconscious to prefer European Americans over African Americans. The astonishing part of this project is that 58% of the people who take this test either “Strongly” or “Moderately” prefer European Americans to African Americans. Why is that? Why do a majority of the people in the United States have a more positive association with white people than black people?
Its a coincidence that I actually experienced this subconscious behavior right before I took the test. My girlfriend lives in Long Beach and tonight she’s going out with her friends to “the ghetto part” of Long Beach to a “black party.” Do we ever associate the word “ghetto” with a white party? An important thing to note is that my girlfriend and I do not have a preference for race consciously. I love all people and feel that we are all equal and should be treated equally. And yet, I feel uncomfortable that she’s going out tonight with just her girlfriends. I feel uncomfortable that it is not safe for them.
Of course many other things play into my worry: it’s just a group of girls going, Kim doesn’t know anyone at the party, they’re going to the party at midnight. All these key aspects about the party play a huge role in my conscious decision to tell her to be extra careful tonight. But I feel that Malcolm and the people who developed the IAT have discovered something very important. Our subconscious play a very key role in the way we make snap judgments and decisions.
So how would this play out in an average day setting? According to this theory of the adaptive subconscious, when I speak to an African American as oppose to a European American, I would stand further back, tend to laugh less, look into his eyes less, dart my eyes more, I would close my body more, and be less self-expressive. On a practical sense, this greatly influence important interactions such as in the interview room. Consciously we would never admit to being influenced by someone’s skin color; however, the subconscious tells us differently.
Take the test and let me know how you are evaluated. What are your feelings on why a majority of people have a stronger preference for European Americans than for African Americans?
That’s a pretty interesting study, and I’m not that surprised with the results.
I read about similar tests which actually followed brain activity patterns. This is all from memory from a Popular Science (I think) article: When people who more or less admitted to being racist took the test there was blatantly activity in the part of the brain associated with fear as a first reaction. People who considered themselves to not be racist showed activity in the decision making and judgment part of the brain first which showed that they went through a series of reactions to calm the fear.
So yea, shows in part that even those non-racist ones are working to suppress certain reactions. Either way, at least people try!
Torbjorn ,
You make an excellent point. I wonder if this means that subconsciously, everyone prefers one race over the other. Do people naturally want to stick with people of their own race? It naturally seems that way in society.
But why the preference for Euro-Americans over African-Americans? Again, this has to do with the society that we grow up in.
nope, hadn’t ventured to take the test, but might get round to it tonight after work.
I guess it does lead to preference in the end - but it definitely starts with past exposure/inexposure. I grew up a minority myself and probably have less fear, but I know people who can’t help but actually look nervous because they admittedly haven’t been around enough minority races. That’s a rare case though, as most of Canada’s quite multicultural….
Well, then we can get into the way people are divided even within a ‘multicultural’ city - probably for another post. Melting-pot vs. Assimilation vs. ?subdivisions?…