“You’re a police officer, and you have to either shoot or not shoot the following targets based on whether or not they’re armed. Sounds easy enough, right? Go!”
@dr.brein How did you do? đźš” THIS is implicit bias. ________ This video was supported by the Pulitzer Center through the Truth Decay Grant Initiative, in collaboration with OpenMind Magazine. To read more about this topic, check out the accompanying article on OpenMind’s website, found in my bio đź”—. #PulitzerCenter #psychology #firstpersonshooter #scicomm #implicit #bias #science #research ♬ original sound – Dr. Ben Rein
The first-person shooter task, often used in psychology studies, has helped psychologists reveal something disturbing: People are much more likely to make the mistake of shooting an unarmed target when they’re Black.
It’s a very clear finding, it has been replicated over and over, and what’s maybe most concerning is that it often happens beneath people’s awareness. It’s an example of something called implicit bias, which is when we hold deeply embedded negative judgments or attitudes. And worse, even when we’re aware of this bias, it’s “sticky”: It sticks around even when we try to correct our behavior.
Removing implicit bias generally requires changing the environment or building guardrails into a system to reduce the risk. For example, students or police officers with training are less likely to shoot unarmed Black targets. Other studies have shown that even just having people imagine stereotypes that are counterintuitive, like asking men to picture a strong, powerful woman, has been shown to reduce implicit bias.
And fun fact, studies also show that when white people are given oxytocin or “the love hormone” it also reduces their likelihood to shoot Black targets.
Although awareness alone may not stop implicit bias, I hope that this video might make you recognize it more and try to find ways to build systems against it. Bias doesn’t make you a bad person, it just makes you human. We all divide the world into categories, but you can always become a better human.
If you want to play the real version of this task used in the studies, go here:
https://run.pavlovia.org/vespr/first-person-shooter-task/
This story originally appeared on OpenMind, a digital magazine tackling science controversies and deceptions.
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