all Mahzarin Banaji stories

Getting to fear you

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:22:12 -0400

Researchers showed some 20 young black and white women and men pictures of a snake and a spider, followed by pictures of a bird and a butterfly. Humans, apes, and monkeys have a harder time shaking off a learned fear of snakes than of butterflies. Would humans demonstrate the same difference of feeling for people of a difference race who they perceived as a threat? To make a long story short - yes.

All this goes to help determine if fear of outsiders is inborn or acquired by experience. Is biology to blame, or is it an acquired dislike?

In the next part of the experiment, 37 black men and women and 36 whites were shown pictures of two frightening black and two frightening white male faces. Male faces were used because they are considered more intimidating than females.

Following that, everyone received a mild electric shock along with a showing of one of the white and one of the black faces. Finally, the subjects viewed all the faces without the discomfort of an electric jolt. The question to answer was whether blacks would show greater fear of intimidating white faces than of threatening black faces, and vice versa.

Psychologists use a time-tested way to measure fear - how much someone sweats. Fear opens the pores of sweat glands in the skin more than neutral emotions.

You may have guessed the result. Fear of the face from the other race persisted longer than fear from the face of the same race. Both found it easier to overcome fears of faces of their own race.

Although the study did not directly speak to dread of terrorists of the same and other races directly, it is suggestive. "The greater persistence of fear to members of other groups suggests that we may persist in our fear of acts of terrorism committed by those who are different than us," says Mahzarin Banaji, a professor of psychology at Harvard who participated in the research. "So, an unknown Muslim terrorist may provoke a greater persistence of fear than, say, Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma bomber) may have in Americans."

Brain shows unconscious prejudices

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:30:49 -0400

A brain area involved with fear flashes more actively when white college students are exposed to subliminal views of black versus white faces. The students didn't actually "see" the faces, which were sandwiched between two patterns they viewed while undergoing brain scans. But they had a clear, deep-brain reaction to them. The same type of bias shows up in Web site tests taken by hundreds of thousands of other people. They reveal unconscious prejudice against the elderly, gays, women, the obese, and a wide range of other groups. Such brain and behavior tests might lead you to view the world as a grim place suffused with hidden hate and fear. But evidently things are not that bad. When white subjects undergoing brain scans see the black face long enough for it to register consciously, brain areas involved with controlled thinking become active. The differences in reactions to black and white faces then decrease. "The imprint of culture is what we see in the subliminal exposure," explains Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University. "Seeing the face consciously allows thoughts and feelings to generate a more reasoned response to the face in view."

Psychology professor Mahzarin Banaji probes prejudices we won't admit

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:20:29 -0400

From the classroom to the cocktail party, opinions like "men are better at math," "Asians make the best violinists," or "women cannot be strong corporate leaders" are unpopular. Yet, says psychologist Mahzarin Banaji, we all carry prejudices like these. We just don't admit to them, because in many cases, we don't know they're there. Banaji is interested in teasing out these unconscious -- or implicit -- attitudes about social group membership. Often, she says, they stand in contrast to the feelings and beliefs that we comfortably trot out in public. Banaji has been studying implicit attitudes for nearly 20 years. She is now moving her work beyond the laboratory and into arenas like law or medicine, where attitudes and prejudices might affect decisions daily.