Buried Prejudice
Summary: Scientists are getting together to figure out where stereotypes originate and how much on an affect they have on our mind. One way of testing is to say random words like democratic and see what the persons initial response is. A neural scientist actually testesd the race-memory advantage in the brain and found that people remember faces of thier own race easier than those of others. They also found that black faces shoed more brain activity that is linked to fear. A study in Italy showed that children are highly afftected by what thier parents think of other races to in terms of the children choosing playmates. A former Harvard student expains that racial bias is fully emerged by age six. Reflexes and in-the-moment judgements also are afftected by this bias. Studies showed that people thought a cell phone was a gun when a black man was holding it, whereas; when another race was holding the same phone ptaients could easily identify it. It also showed that when whites were communicating with blacks thier body language was uneasy and they would rarely look them in the eyes. The article goes on to talk about how this bias afftects everyday life: in the school, workplace, law, and even in hospitals! They say that it is possible to consciously control your thoughts about other races but such work may lead to complete avoidance of communication with that race. They close the article by saying that it is possible for us to change our racial bias but we have to make that conscious decision on a regualar bases.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=buried-prejudice-the-bigot-in-your-brain
My Response: I thought this article was enilightening. While some of it may sound far-stretched it really sheds light on how much we let stereotypes affect us. I thought it was interesting when he was talking about our body language around other races. I do agree that we can make a conscious decision to change our thoughts about other races, and more than that I think it is a logical decision. I mean really not all arabs are terrorists and not all white people are racist against blacks. As christians I think its time that we fought against the stereotypes that America has instilled in us and let God rule our thoughts of others and not fear.
posted by adrienne @ 9:05 AM
3 Comments:
This is really interesting, I mean it makes alot of sense, the associations that are brain subconsciously makes. I think the media influences us equally to our environment/parents. It's definelty not healthy to get our views of people from those varying sources. I think it's important to treat each person as an individual and not define them, but let them reveal themself to you. So many miscommunications come from preconceived ideas about people/groups. It is very bothering when (as mentioned in the article) cops get away with shooting/killing the wrong person because they fit the description.... we definetly have a long way to come, if we ever make it to becoming a non-stereotypical environment.
How fascinating... this really goes to show that we need to be careful to not be too quick to judge people. Subconscious thoughts around people of different races, religions, political views, etc., may start out as just thoughts but can soon reveal themselves in behavior and speech. But it is a decision we must constantly make to treat each other, no matter what color or ethnic bbackground, with the same amount of respect as anyone of the same race as ourselves.
This is an interesting article that just proves how much our environment affects us when we are growing up and how we are brought up. We couldn't just randomly be predjudice against a certain race unless we are brought up that way or are exposed to that as a young person.
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