Politics of Social Psychology by Crawford Jarret T.;Jussim Lee; & Lee Jussim

Author:Crawford, Jarret T.;Jussim, Lee; & Lee Jussim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2017-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Example of Implicit Bias Research

Pair surprising results with a timely topic and enthusiastic researchers ready to extend those results to real-world domains, and psychological research may quickly find its way into policy debates, agency rule-making, executive suites and boardrooms, and courtrooms. That has certainly been the case with implicit bias research. With the aid of several psychologists who believe that new implicit measures of psychological processes—particularly the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the shooter bias paradigm—have opened the door to the subconscious and its many influences on behavior, a new understanding of the power of race and gender to bias behavior has entered public consciousness and public policy discussions.

In conjunction with activation of the first Project Implicit website in 1998 and publication of the first IAT results, Drs. Greenwald and Banaji held a press conference in which they declared that the race IAT reveals unconscious prejudice that affects “90% to 95% of people” (http://www.washington.edu/news/1998/09/29/roots-of-unconscious-prejudice-affect-90-to-95-percent-of-people-psychologists-demonstrate-at-press-conference/). Shortly thereafter, Dr. Greenwald appeared on an NBC News segment demonstrating the IAT as a measure of unconscious prejudice. In March of 2000, Drs. Banaji and Greenwald appeared on NBC’s Dateline program discussing IAT research, with Dr. Banaji characterizing the test as an examination of how “fair are we being when we judge a person,” and Dr. Greenwald giving an example of the wrongful shooting of a black suspect by police as an example of how the bias measured by the IAT can affect behavior. Since those early appearances, Drs. Banaji and Greenwald have given many statements for television shows, radio programs, and print articles about the IAT, what it measures, and the behavioral consequences of implicit bias as measured by the IAT. In their book published in 2013 for a general audience, Banaji and Greenwald write, after detailing disparities in housing, employment, healthcare, and imprisonment, that “it is reasonable to conclude not only that implicit bias is a cause of Black disadvantage but also that it plausibly plays a greater role than does explicit bias in explaining the discrimination that contributes to Black disadvantage” (Banaji & Greenwald, 2013, p. 209).

The public policy agenda behind Drs. Greenwald and Banaji publicity efforts is no secret. According to Dr. Banaji, “[t]he central idea is to use the energy generated by research on unconscious forms of prejudice to understand and challenge the notion of intentionality in the law” (Potier, 2004). To this end, Dr. Greenwald has given presentations at American Bar Association conferences aimed at educating lawyers on legal implications of the IAT research, and both Dr. Greenwald and Dr. Banaji have written articles for legal audiences (e.g., Greenwald & Krieger, 2006; Kang & Banaji, 2006; Kang et al., 2012).

Drs. Banaji and Greenwald (and others) have taken their education efforts to courts as well. Dr. Banaji testified about the possible influence of implicit bias on jurors in a death penalty case in New Hampshire, and Dr. Greenwald has now appeared as an expert witness in several legal cases (and in some of those cases, the present author submitted

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