Yale University Science News
Office of Public Affairs
Phone: 203/432-1345
Fax: 203/432-1323
http://www.yale.edu/opa
Contact: Bill Hathaway 203-432-1322 or william.hathaway@yale.edu
January 8, 2009
Study Reveals Surprisingly High Tolerance for Racism
New Haven, Conn. - White people do not get as upset when confronted with racial
prejudice as they think they will, a study by researchers at Yale University,
York University, and the University of British Columbia suggests. This
indifference helps explains why racism persists even as the United States
prepares to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama, researchers say.
Non-black participants who experienced a racial slur against a black person did
not get as upset or react against the racist remark as they predicted they
would, according to a study published in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal
Science. This acquiescence in the face of racism leads to its perpetuation,
because numerous studies have shown that people confronted after making slurs
are much less likely to repeat the behavior in public or in private, said John
Dovidio, Yale psychologist and a co-author of the study.
"We have an unconscious bias that affects us in significant ways," Dovidio said.
The researchers studied 120 non-black participants who volunteered for the
experiment and either directly experienced a racial incident or had the incident
described to them. The first group watched a black man, posing as a fellow
participant, slightly bump a white confederate also posing as a participant.
After the black man left the room, the white confederate either said nothing, or
"I hate it when black people do that," or said, "clumsy n____." Other groups did
not directly experience the event but either read about it or watched it on
videotape and were asked to predict their responses to the events.
The subjects who didn't experience the event were much more likely to report
that they were upset at the white worker's slurs and to say they would not work
with such a person. Those who actually experienced the event were less
distressed and were as willing to work with the person who made racist comments
as someone who did not.
Dovidio argues that participants who witness racism were much less willing to
pay the emotional cost of confronting a racist than they thought they would be.
That in turn means the racist pays less of a cost in social ostracism by
expressing bias, he said.
Kerry Kawakami of York University was lead author on the study. Francine
Karmali of York and Elizabeth Dunn from British Columbia were other co-authors
Citation: Science, January 9, 2009
Link:
John Dovidio
http://ww.yale.edu/psychology/FacInfo/Dovidio.html
Office of Public Affairs
Phone: 203/432-1345
Fax: 203/432-1323
http://www.yale.edu/opa
Contact: Bill Hathaway 203-432-1322 or william.hathaway@yale.edu
January 8, 2009
Study Reveals Surprisingly High Tolerance for Racism
New Haven, Conn. - White people do not get as upset when confronted with racial
prejudice as they think they will, a study by researchers at Yale University,
York University, and the University of British Columbia suggests. This
indifference helps explains why racism persists even as the United States
prepares to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama, researchers say.
Non-black participants who experienced a racial slur against a black person did
not get as upset or react against the racist remark as they predicted they
would, according to a study published in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal
Science. This acquiescence in the face of racism leads to its perpetuation,
because numerous studies have shown that people confronted after making slurs
are much less likely to repeat the behavior in public or in private, said John
Dovidio, Yale psychologist and a co-author of the study.
"We have an unconscious bias that affects us in significant ways," Dovidio said.
The researchers studied 120 non-black participants who volunteered for the experiment and either directly experienced a racial incident or had the incident
described to them. The first group watched a black man, posing as a fellow
participant, slightly bump a white confederate also posing as a participant.
After the black man left the room, the white confederate either said nothing, or
"I hate it when black people do that," or said, "clumsy n____." Other groups did
not directly experience the event but either read about it or watched it on
videotape and were asked to predict their responses to the events.
The subjects who didn't experience the event were much more likely to report
that they were upset at the white worker's slurs and to say they would not work
with such a person. Those who actually experienced the event were less
distressed and were as willing to work with the person who made racist comments
as someone who did not.
Dovidio argues that participants who witness racism were much less willing to
pay the emotional cost of confronting a racist than they thought they would be.
That in turn means the racist pays less of a cost in social ostracism by
expressing bias, he said.
Kerry Kawakami of York University was lead author on the study. Francine
Karmali of York and Elizabeth Dunn from British Columbia were other co-authors
Citation: Science, January 9, 2009
Link:
John Dovidio
http://ww.yale.edu/psychology/FacInfo/Dovidio.html
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