Automatic Racial Assumptions: Investigating the Relationship Between Implicit Racial Bias and Experiences of Affective Reactions to Racialized Others in a South African Population
Date
2023-08
Authors
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Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
Background: There is evidence to suggest that one’s social context is critical in shaping the automatic affective responses that one has to their own and other racial groups. However, to date, research into explicit and implicit racial biases has largely investigated this phenomenon in predominantly White populations within the global North. Furthermore, while there is evidence to suggest that people possess a tacit awareness of their implicit racial biases, a study is yet to demonstrate a direct link between self-reported experiences of one’s own biases and implicit measures of bias. This may be due problems inherit with existing self-report measures of bias, which focus on beliefs and attitudes regarding race, rather than asking individuals to reflect on their own affective experiences regarding their interactions with people of their own and other races.
Aims and Methods: Using an ex post facto correlational design, this study investigated the relationship between implicit racial bias, explicit affective responses to racial groups and consciously held beliefs and attitudes about racial groups, and whether there were any between-group differences across any of these variables within a sample of self-identified Black (N = 25) and White (N = 20) South African adults. Data was collected using an adapted version of the Racial Implicit Association Test (IAT) for use in the South African context and a novel self-report scale that measures both explicit Attitudinal and Affective Racial Bias (AARB), with both measures investigating White- and Black-directed racial biases.
Results and Discussion: This study demonstrates significant between-group differences in explicit, but not implicit, measures of racial bias based on self-identified race in this sample. Providing evidence for the distinction between attitudinal and affective forms of explicit racial bias and suggesting that the direct comparison between biases directed towards Black and White racial groups may not be appropriate in diverse settings, given that there is only a relationship between these two forms of racial bias with the White identified participants, but no direct relationship between these biases were found within the sample of Black identified participants. Finally, the results of this study suggest that self-report measures of affective racial bias may demonstrate a stronger correlation with implicit biases as measure by the IAT than traditional measures of attitudinal bias.
Description
A Research Report Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Social and Psychological Research in the Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, Faculty of Humanities, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023.
Keywords
Implicit racial bias, Explicit racial bias, Affective, Implicit association test, Racial prejudice, UCTD
Citation
Gomes, Stash Briano. (2023). Automatic Racial Assumptions: Investigating the Relationship Between Implicit Racial Bias and Experiences of Affective Reactions to Racialized Others in a South African Population. [Master's dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40179