{"id":610,"date":"2019-12-06T13:11:59","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T12:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/?p=610"},"modified":"2022-06-14T15:12:02","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T13:12:02","slug":"does-prejudice-necessarily-lead-to-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/does-prejudice-necessarily-lead-to-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Does prejudice necessarily lead to discrimination?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Background vector created by freepik – www.freepik.com <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Philadelphia, April 2018. Two people are waiting for an acquaintance in Starbucks. The manager calls the police, justifying his action with the fact that consumption is mandatory in his establishment. A viral video <\/a>showed police officers handcuffing innocent people \u2013 African Americans. It led to public protests, and eventually to an apology from the managing director. He also announced that the company\u2019s 8,000 employees would undergo training to combat implicit racial prejudice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large volume of scientific literature in social and cognitive\npsychology attests to the existence of implicit biases, namely automatic\nassociations made by our brain. Tests can measure them, the most well-known\nbeing the implicit association test developed in 1998 by the American\npsychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald. It measures in\nmilliseconds the reaction time of a person to make certain associations. A\nmajority of individuals thus take longer to associate \u201cgood\u201d with \u201cblack\u201d than\nwith \u201cwhite\u201d, or \u201cscience\u201d with \u201cwoman\u201d than with \u201cman\u201d. This is claimed to\nprove the existence of prejudices, conscious or otherwise. The test is used in\nmany fields and has gained popularity in studies on racial, gender and age\ndiscrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last two decades, this test has become established as a relevant scientific tool, despite some criticism<\/a>. Numerous studies have documented the existence of various biases. But most often, they are conducted in laboratories and in simulations, leaving open an essential question: Do implicit biases really have consequences on behaviour in day-to-day life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not enough on their own<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Two recent studies have shown interesting correlations between implicit\nbiases and actual behaviour. The first was published in the summer of 2019 and\ndescribed around 40 experts responsible for evaluating the applications for\nresearch management positions at the Centre national de la recherche\nscientifique<\/em> (CNRS) in France. Its analysis looked at whether the\nevaluation process discriminated against female candidates. \u201cOur approach is\nunprecedented\u201d, explains Isabelle R\u00e9gner, a professor at the Laboratory of\nCognitive Psychology at the University of Aix-Marseille. \u201cIt\u2019s studied the\nactivities of real evaluation committees in all scientific disciplines, from\nmaths to sociology\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research team included Pascal Huguet, the research director of the CNRS. It subjected the members of the evaluation committees to an implicit associations test, revealing that more than 70 percent of them have a bias associating science with men, in other words the same average as among the general population. The subjects also completed a questionnaire asking them whether they felt that women are less likely to be appointed to management positions because of intrinsic factors (e.g., their skills or motivation) or because of extrinsic barriers (e.g., hiring biases, barriers to advancement, etc.). This is an explicit bias test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implicit biases alone do not explain discrimination <\/p>Isabelle R\u00e9gner<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The study was conducted in two phases. In the first year, the evaluation\ncommittees were informed by senior management of the research being conducted.\nThe decisions made by their members were somewhat parity-based, showing no\nrelation to their implicit or explicit biases. The study continued into a\nsecond year, which was not known to the committee members, and revealed that\nthose showing both implicit and explicit biases appointed fewer women, unlike\nthose showing implicit biases only. \u201cImplicit biases alone do not explain\ndiscrimination\u201d, says the author of the study. It is only in combination with\nexplicit biases that they influenced committees\u2019 decisions. \u201cThe study also\nshows the effect of knowing that one is being observed: these differences were\nnot present in the first year, when the evaluation committees were aware of\nparticipating in a study on gender discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indirect effect of prejudice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, a study conducted by France\u2019s INSEAD revealed the subtle\neffects of implicit racial biases against employees shown by supermarket chain\nmanagers. It analysed the situation of cashiers on temporary six-month\ncontracts (the sample consisted only of women). Every day, the supermarket\u2019s\nhuman resources system assigned employees at random to a manager. An implicit\nassociation test meanwhile revealed biases in 80 percent of the managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study explored the impact of the origin of employees, which was\ndetermined on the basis of their first names. The results showed that people\nfrom minorities (either of North African or sub-Saharan origin) showed higher\nrates of absence and error when working for a biased manager. \u201cWhat is\ninteresting is the cause of this drop in performance\u201d, says the study\u2019s leader\nDylan Glover. \u201cDuring our survey, no employees mentioned inappropriate or\novertly racist behaviour on the part of biased managers. On the contrary, they\nnoted a low level of interaction, and few requests from them for thankless\ntasks, such as cleaning\u201d. The scientists concluded that biased managers simply\ninteracted less with minority employees and that this resulted in a decrease in\ntheir performance. \u201cOur study indicates that the effect of implicit biases on\nbehaviour is not necessarily the one you would expect\u201d, says Glover. \u201cIn our\ncase, we find ourselves more in a self-fulfilling prophecy: managers are\nbiased; this affects the productivity of minority employees, which in turn\nconfirms managers\u2019 prejudices\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So should supermarkets set up training courses for managers to work on\ntheir unconscious prejudices, for example by presenting images that contradict\ngender or racist stereotypes? Glover thinks not, saying that further research\nwould be needed to demonstrate the usefulness of such measures. And the study\non the CNRS evaluation committees concludes that any training should focus more\non the knowledge of the existence of implicit biases and on the functioning of\ndiscriminatory behaviour. It should also include awareness of external factors\nthat disadvantage women. \u201cOur research indicates that these kinds of measures\ncould be effective\u201d, says R\u00e9gner. \u201cBut the subject still needs to be explored with\nfurther studies before systematic policies can be developed. This is what we\nare currently doing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A domain not yet ready for application<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Both studies indicate a link between implicit bias and direct or indirect discriminatory effects, but they fail to determine that specific training on implicit biases can impact discriminatory behaviour. According to a meta-analysis <\/a>of 492 studies on modifying implicit biases, the literature currently shows a mixed picture. \u201cThe scientific literature does not allow us to conclude that training courses aimed at changing implicit biases are either effective or ineffective\u201d, explains the author Patrick Forscher, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Grenoble Alpes. \u201cNor does it demonstrate that any successful changes actually have an effect on discriminatory behaviour. On the basis of current knowledge, we just don\u2019t know anything about it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I consider this field of research as not yet ready for any practical application <\/p>Patrick Forscher<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Forscher adds that he was struck by one thing: The vast majority of the\nresearch analysed was based solely on laboratory tests, using experiments that\ngenerally did not last longer than  5-10 minutes. No long-term changes in\nimplicit bias have been measured yet. \u201cI consider this field of research as not\nyet ready for any practical application\u201d, he says. Food for thought for the\nmany companies and institutions that are paying out for employee training on\nimplicit biases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Implicit association tests show that we all have forms of unconscious prejudice on gender and race. But does that make us sexists and racists? Initial studies are finally yielding concrete results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genevieveruiz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}