MT 2 Flashcards
Implicit vs Explicit
Implicit: What’s uncontrollable (automatic) and not accessible via introspection
Explicit: Controllable and accessible via conscious thought
Roger Shepard
“…any knowledge or understanding of the ilusion we may gain at the intellectual level remains virtually powerless to diminish the magnitude of the illusion.”
Even if you’re aware of the illusion, you can’t override your implicit interpretation of it (ie. you’ll still see the illusion)
Name the person:
“…any knowledge or understanding of the ilusion we may gain at the intellectual level remains virtually powerless to diminish the magnitude of the illusion.”
Even if you’re aware of the illusion, you can’t override your implicit interpretation of it (ie. you’ll still see the illusion)
Roger Shepard
What do optical illusions and stuff shown in class illustrate?
- Unconscious processes can influence conscious processes
2. Subjective awareness may not influence unconscious processing
Social Categories functions
Reasoning (evaluation/attitudes & stereotypes)
Facilitates social interaction (helping, friendships)
ie. Children are more likely to share with in-group than out-group
Sources of Intergroup Cognition
Experience Peers, family Media Biology Interaction (culture fills in content)
Aboud
In-group liking emerges before dislike of outgroup (explicit)
Age 3-4 for in-group liking; outgroup dislike after age 7
Bigler, Jones & Lobliner
Children seem to spontaneously form categories and prefer in-group members (by age 6)
Effect of Contact
Bar graph shows that white children in an all-white school are significantly more likely to make hostile interpretations for black children
On the other hand, white (and minority-group) children who are in a mixed school are equally likely to make hostile interpretations for black and white children
Thus, attending a mixed school results in reduced racial bias; contact matters; more diverse interactions results in decreased racial bias (explicitly, at least)
Intergroup Cognition Paradox - Aging
- As you get older, there is a decrease in negative attitudes toward the outgroup
- As you get older, there is an increase in negative behaviour toward the outgroup
As you get older, there is a decrease in negative attitudes toward the outgroup
Race bias
- Emerges by age 3 or 4
- Peaks near age 7
- Declines throughout adolescence
- As you get older, you adopt more egalitarian views
As you get older, there is an increase in negative behaviour toward the outgroup
Fewer interracial interactions & friendships
Discrimination:
-Housing (lending, renting practices)
-Employment (salaries, promotions)
-Healthcare (access to treatment, quality of treatment)
-Education (access/quality of education)
-Subtle ways (ie. looting vs finding food)
Limitations of Explicit Measures
Access: Assume that we have access to everything we’re thinking and feeling, which is untrue
Social Desirability: Assume that we don’t care about what the other person thinks; assume that we won’t say what we think they want to hear (this is also untrue)
Implicit preferences predicts
Friendliness
Hiring
Voting
Medical Treatment
Where do these implicit biases come from?
Your peers, family, media, personal experience
Development of implicit group preferences
Theory 1: Learn gradually
Theory 2: Early and automatic
Theory 1: Learn gradually
product of our experiences; as you get older, the more opportunity to have to gain experiences; to hear about biases from the media; to interact with people from different social groups to reinforce or challenge your biases; there’s a gradual accumulation of experience
Parents, peers, media, personal experience
Is there an optimal age to intervene and shape a person’s bias? What’s the developmental pattern of biases? How early does it form? How strong is it? How big of a role do interventions play in shaping these biases?
Theory 2: Early and automatic
In-group preference (place people in group A and group B, people will immediately form biases and show preference to their own group)
Mere familiarity
Key Takeaways about implicit biases
Early acquisition (if there is developmental change, it is occurring before age 6)
Group membership (if you’re in the majority group, it doesn’t matter, but if you’re in a minority group, preference for in-group vs out-group depends on the status of the out-group being used for comparison and their social status)
By age 6, you have some amount of in-group bias, and it’s not really changing over development past this stage
If you’re in a high status group, you have a stronger in-group bias than if you’re in a low status group
Roots prior to age 6
Early life experiences are important for acquisition
Development of Intergroup Cognition
With age, explicit intergroup preferences change
Implicit intergroup preferences remain fairly constant
Relationship with behaviour?
-Implicit is correlated with behaviour
-At what age do biases begin to correlate with behaviour
Malleability across development?
-Maybe there’s periods in development where it’s easier to change implicit biases?
Malleability of Implicit Bias?
What to make of the apparent stability of bias across development?
Forms early, slow to/doesn’t change?
Reflects shared environments between children and adults?
Need to directly examine whether development differences exist in the capacity to change implicit bias
