Buried Prejudice ~~ Last New Discussion Idea for IONS Community Groups Until September 2008.
"Deep within our subconscious all of us harbor biases that we consciously abhor. And the worst part," says Scientific American Mind author Siri Carpenter, "WE ACT ON THEM." She quotes Jesse Jackson who once told an audience, "There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery -- then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved."
How do such prejudices start? What can we do about them? Significant highlights of the article include:
1. All of us hold unconscious cliched beliefs about social groups: black and white, female and male, elderly and young, gay and straight, fat and thin.
2. Such implicit bias is far more prevalent than the more overt, or explicit, prejudice thst we associate with, for instance, the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazis.
3. Certain social scenarious can automatically activate implicit sterotypes and attitudes, which then can affect our perceptions, judgments and behavior, including the choice of whom to befriend, whom to hire and, in the case of doctors, what treatment to deliver.
4. Recent research suggests we can reshape our implicit attitudes and beliefs -- or at least curb their effects on our behavior.
You can access discussion questions at http://www.shiftinaction.com/node/3444.
