It may be a tool that can jumpstart our thinking about hidden biases: Where do they come from? How do they influence our actions? What can we do about them? Biases and behaviorĪ growing number of studies show a link between hidden biases and actual behavior. We believe the IAT procedure may be useful beyond the research purposes for which it was originally developed. Project Implicit-a collaborative research effort between researchers at Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and University of Washington-offers dozens of such tests. 'Implicit Association Tests' (IATs) can tap those hidden, or automatic, stereotypes and prejudices that circumvent conscious control. Studies show people can be consciously committed to egalitarianism, and deliberately work to behave without prejudice, yet still possess hidden negative prejudices or stereotypes. Scientific research has demonstrated that biases thought to be absent or extinguished remain as 'mental residue' in most of us. Psychologists theorize bias conveyed by the media helps to explain why children can adopt hidden prejudices even when their family environments explicitly oppose them. Stereotypes can also be conveyed by omission in popular culture, as when TV shows present an all-white world. The elderly, for example, are routinely portrayed as being frail and forgetful, while younger people are often shown as vibrant and able. Mass media routinely take advantage of stereotypes as shorthand to paint a mood, scene or character. The fact that white culture is dominant in America may explain why people of color often do not show a strong bias favoring their own ethnic group. How do we perpetuate bias?īias is perpetuated by conformity with in-group attitudes and socialization by the culture at large. The statement 'Some of my best friends are _' captures this tendency to allow some exceptions without changing our bias. People will embrace anecdotes that reinforce their biases, but disregard experience that contradicts them. Once learned, stereotypes and prejudices resist change, even when evidence fails to support them or points to the contrary.

Early in life, most children acquire a full set of biases that can be observed in verbal slurs, ethnic jokes and acts of discrimination.

Soon, they begin to form attachments to their own group and develop negative attitudes about other racial or ethnic groups, or the 'out-group'. Many studies have shown that as early as age 3, children pick up terms of racial prejudice without really understanding their significance. Social scientists believe children begin to acquire prejudices and stereotypes as toddlers.

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