In their July 2006 article, "Implicit Bias: Scientific Foundations," published in the California Law Review, psychologist Anthony Greenwald and Professor of Law Linda Hamilton Krieger examine how unconscious perceptions can influence conscious behavior in relation to discriminatory behavior. This is an interesting article. They tackle the often heard, "I don't see color. I see a person" by examining how unconscious perceptions do make us see color whether or not we consciously want to admit it and that this lack of explicit knowledge nevertheless influences our behavior. Greenwald developed the test, Implicit Association Test which he uses to explore "implicit social cognition" and "unconscious cognition." Thinking about the current presidential contest which includes plenty of room for implicit bias based on sex, race, and age (to name just three social categories) it's interesting to read this work and consider how we are judging Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama implicity as well as explicitly and how that is expressed in our behavior; voting. For a list of Professor Greenwald's publications, including a complete PDF download of the article discussed here, click on the title of this post above. That'll take you to his faculty webpage at the University of Washington. See what you think and explore what you might not like to think about.
3 comments:
I selected a journal by Dr. Greenwald, dealing with choices made by consumers, which is always interesting. In this journal he talks about the testing of Implicit Attitudes and he comments,"The assumption underlying interpretation of the IAT is
that it is easier to give the same response to items in two cate-
gories when those categories are associated than when they
are not. In the example, suppose flowers and insects have an
equally strong association with positive evaluations. Then,
there should be no difference in ease of performing the task,
regardless of which target category (flowers or insects) is
paired with pleasant words. However, suppose instead that
the categories have differential evaluative associations (e.g.,
flowers are more strongly associated with pleasant words
than are insects). In this case, it should be easier to perform
the task that requires giving the same response to flower
names and pleasant words. This would be indicative of a
more positive attitude toward flowers than toward insects."
I can understand the first part about interpretation when the associations are similar, but he has lost me on the the interpretation of when the associations differ. I need an interpretation of his interpretation. But I will keep reading to see where this all fits in......Debbie
Gotta love experimental social psychology! I have a way that I understand what you're wondering about here, but it's a diagram (concept map, yay!) so let's talk about it when we get together and I can draw it on a napkin :)
Oh yes....visual will be good! Sounds like a plan! Thanks, Debbie
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