lifesaving medical treatments.”
In an effort to combat implicit bias and its harmful results,
Devine and other prejudice researchers have been testing various
anti-bias training methods. And there’s good news from Devine’s
latest study: One adaptation of these approaches appears to
reduce implicit bias, and to sustain that effect over time.
Implicit bias operates much like any habit, said Devine, a
psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Breaking that habit requires several deliberate steps:
• Becoming aware of one’s implicit bias.
• Being concerned about the consequences of the bias.
• Learning to replace the biased response with non-
prejudiced responses — ones that more closely match the
values people consciously believe that they hold.
Once people take the first step, they’re more likely to take the
next ones, said Devine. This is because awareness of prejudiced
responses leads to guilt, which leads to self-regulation to
prevent future prejudice.
Devine started her investigation by recruiting 91 nonblack
college students and assessing their self-reported racial
attitudes and implicit bias, as indicated by the face-word task.
All participants received feedback on their task performance,
but only half received the educational intervention, in which
they learned about implicit bias and how it perpetuates
discrimination. For example, they heard about the photo-caption
controversy that erupted after Hurricane Katrina: In one photo, a
black man was said to have “looted” a grocery store; in another, a
white couple was said to have “found” items from a store.
Finally, the intervention group learned research-based
strategies to combat bias, including empathizing with and
imagining people as the opposite of their stereotypes.
Both the intervention and control groups were tested again
postintervention. The results, said Devine, are notable: Both
groups started out as equivalent in implicit bias, but, four
weeks later, only the intervention group showed a significant
reduction in it. The effect persisted through week eight.
“This is the first study I know of showing a sustained drop in
implicit bias, and I am considering eight weeks sustained,” said
The study also revealed an association between higher
self-reported concern about bias and lower implicit-bias
scores. These patterns held when Devine’s team retested the
participants two years later.
What’s not clear is which parts of the intervention made the
difference — was it teaching participants about the existence
and effects of implicit bias, or was it giving them tools to
“That,” said Devine, “is a question for future research.” n
Bridget Murray Law is a writer in Silver Spring, Md.
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