 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
This study
examines how White's completion of an implicit measure
of racial attitudes might actually present a risk of
confirming the stereotype that Whites are racially
biased. To test this notion, White undergraduates
in Experiment 1 completed an implicit measure of
race-based associations (the race Implicit Association
Task (IAT); Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) after
being told nothing about the measure (control), that the
measure indicated "racial bias" (high threat) or that
responses to the measure reflected knowledge of, but not
personal belief in, racial stereotypes (no threat). Results showed that performance was worst (i.e., most
confirming of implicit racist associations) in the high
threat condition and best in the no threat condition,
with performance in the control condition between these
two extremes. Even performance in the control
condition showed evidence of stereotypic race-based
associations, however, indicating that the absence of
stereotype threat did not completely eliminated
traditional racial associations. Experiment 2
replicated these effects but also showed that they were
moderated by individual differences in motivation to
control prejudiced responses. Specifically, IAT
scores indicating stereotypical associations were higher
under stereotype threat to the degree that individuals
were concerned about appearing unbiased.
Experiment 3 had White students complete the IAT under
threat or no threat, but half the students were first
allow to affirm their commitment to being nonracist.
When allowed to self-affirm, threat had no affect on IAT
scores. Without affirmation, however, IAT scores were
higher under high threat than no threat. Only those
individuals motivated to control prejudice responses but
not allowed to affirm commitment to nonracism showed
higher IAT scores under high compared with no threat.
These data show that Whites who are threatened by the
possibility of seeming racist produce elevated IAT
scores, that Whites motivated to control prejudiced are
ironically particularly vulnerable to this stereotype
threat effect, and that opportunities to affirm
one’s commitment to nonracism attenuate this effect.
Back to top | Previous
Page
|
|
|
|
