NOWADAYS, we like to think we have got past the racist claptrap of previous centuries, when even scientists 鈥� white ones, of course 鈥� declared white people to be the pinnacle of human progress and other races to be inferior. There is no question that most societies have made enormous progress in eliminating such overt racial prejudice. But an unsettling by researchers in the US suggests that there is still a long way to go.
Even today, the study finds, Americans of various races still unconsciously dehumanise their black fellow citizens by subtly associating them with apes. In an experiment in which students were subliminally flashed a photo of either an African-American or a European-American face and then shown a blurry picture of an ape, those shown the black face were quicker to recognise the ape. More troubling still, this association is not just confined to psychologists鈥� tests: it also appears to bias people鈥檚 judgements about whether specific instances of police violence are justified (see 鈥淩acial stereotyping persists in 鈥榥on-racists'鈥�).
Nor is this bias restricted to a few unreformed troglodytes. The researchers found it in people with a wide spectrum of racial attitudes, as measured by a standard test of racial prejudice. In other words, no matter how well-intentioned an individual might be, such ideas are likely to be lurking under the surface 鈥� the product of subtle social conditioning rather than conscious malice.
Advertisement
All this must come with a health warning. As with most attempts to study attitudes to race, the conclusions are confounded by numerous alternative explanations. Was it just skin colour, rather than any deeper association, that led the study鈥檚 participants to associate blacks with apes? Were the researchers merely measuring a generalised bias against otherness 鈥� a tendency to regard anyone 鈥渘ot like us鈥� as somewhat less human? Over the course of six separate experiments, the researchers ruled out each of these possible alternatives in turn, though it should be noted that none of their experiments controlled for all of them at once.
Outside experts contacted by 麻豆传媒 agree that the researchers have made a strong case that their subjects demonstrate a real unconscious bias. For such an emotionally and politically charged subject, though, it will be important to see whether the pattern holds up in other studies. In particular, the study falls short on testing whether black people make the same unconscious association between blacks and apes that are made by people of other races. Most of the participants in the study 鈥� including all the subjects in key experiments, such as the one looking at police violence 鈥� were white American university students. The researchers are now following up by repeating it on people of other nationalities and ethnic backgrounds.
If the results continue to hold up, we are left with the conclusion that good intentions alone are not going to get us to a race-neutral society any time soon. After all, it has been repugnant for at least a generation to imply that black people are apelike: indeed, only 9 per cent of the students in the study said they had even heard of the stereotype.
What seems to keep the stereotype alive are a series of tiny, almost imperceptible hints. Erasing them will take some thought and effort. Journalists searching for vivid descriptions of crimes will need to take extra care not to fall back on their memory of what they have read before, which includes echoes of a distant racism in which animalistic terms come more readily to mind for black suspects. In science too there is room for improvement. Biology textbooks would do well to replace the classic Victorian depiction of human evolution as a progression from dark-skinned, broad-nosed australopithecines to a European-looking Homo sapiens with one that makes it clear that dark-skinned, broad-nosed Homo sapiens are no less highly evolved.
One of the most effective ways in which negative associations will be banished is if they are replaced by positive ones. Every time people subconsciously connect 鈥渂lack鈥� with Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King or Kofi Annan, the old, hateful 鈥渁pe鈥� association becomes a little weaker. Seen in that light, Barack Obama鈥檚 showing as a credible presidential candidate may have repercussions that will go beyond this year鈥檚 contest for the White House.
鈥淥ne of the most effective ways in which negative associations will be banished is if they are replaced by positive ones鈥�