An Exploration of Implicit Racial Bias as a Source of Diagnostic Error

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund C. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Racial Bias ◽  
Diagnostic Error ◽  
Implicit Racial Bias

scholarly journals Medical School Experiences Associated with Change in Implicit Racial Bias Among 3547 Students: A Medical Student CHANGES Study Report

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1748-1756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle van Ryn ◽  
Rachel Hardeman ◽  
Sean M. Phelan ◽  
Diana J. Burgess PhD ◽  
John F. Dovidio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Student ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
School Experiences ◽  
Implicit Racial Bias ◽  
Study Report

scholarly journals The Myth of Objectivity: Implicit Racial Bias and the Law (Part 2)

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Willem Hendrik Gravett
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Implicit Racial Bias ◽  
The Law

The centrality of race to our history and the substantial racial inequalities that continue to pervade society ensure that "race" remains an extraordinarily salient and meaningful social category.  Explicit racial prejudice, however, is only part of the problem.  Equally important - and likely more pervasive - is the phenomenon of implicit racial prejudice: the cognitive processes whereby, despite even our best intentions, the human mind automatically classifies information in racial categories and against disfavoured social groups. Empirical research shows convincingly that these biases against socially disfavoured groups are (i) pervasive; (ii) often diverge from consciously reported attitudes and beliefs; and (iii) influence consequential behaviour towards the subjects of these biases. The existence of implicit racial prejudices poses a challenge to legal theory and practice. From the standpoint of a legal system that seeks to forbid differential treatment based upon race or other protected traits, if people are in fact treated differently, and worse, because of their race or other protected trait, then the fundamental principle of anti-discrimination has been violated. It hardly matters that the source of the differential treatment is implicit rather than conscious bias. This article investigates the relevance of this research to the law by means of an empirical account of how implicit racial bias could affect the criminal trial trajectory in the areas of policing, prosecutorial discretion and judicial decision-making.  It is the author's hypothesis that this mostly American research also applies to South Africa. The empirical evidence of implicit biases in every country tested shows that people are systematically implicitly biased in favour of socially privileged groups. Even after 1994 South Africa – similar to the US – continues to be characterised by a pronounced social hierarchy in which Whites overwhelmingly have the highest social status. The author argues that the law should normatively take cognizance of this issue.  After all, the mere fact that we may not be aware of, much less consciously intend, race-contingent behaviour does not magically erase the harm. The article concludes by addressing the question of the appropriate response of the law and legal role players to the problem of implicit racial bias.

scholarly journals The effect of implicit racial bias in residency applicant selection

2022 ◽  
Vol 226 (1) ◽  
pp. S296
Author(s):  
Thammatat Vorawandthanachai ◽  
Calvin E. Lambert ◽  
David Flomenbaum ◽  
Francine Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Racial Bias ◽  
Implicit Racial Bias ◽  
Applicant Selection

The Effect of Implicit Racial Bias on Recognition of Other-Race Faces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobiasz Trawinski ◽  
Araz Aslanian ◽  
Olivia S. Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Ability Test ◽  
Implicit Racial Bias ◽  
Recognition Ability

Previous research has established a possible link between recognition performance, individuation experience, and implicit racial bias of other-race faces. However, it remains unclear how implicit racial bias might influence other-race face processing in observers with relatively extensive experience with the other race. Here we examined how recognition of other-race faces might be modulated by observers’ implicit racial bias, in addition to the effects of experience and face recognition ability. Caucasian participants in a culturally diverse city completed a memory task for Asian and Caucasian faces, an implicit association test, an experience questionnaire towards Asians and Caucasians, and a face recognition ability test. Overall, participants showed significantly better recognition performance for other- than own-race faces. More importantly, recognition performance for other-race faces was positively predicted by increased face recognition ability, experience with Asians, and negatively predicted by increased positive bias towards Asians, which was modulated by an interaction between face recognition ability and implicit bias, with the effect of implicit bias observed predominantly in observers with high face recognition ability. Moreover, significant differences were observed among the positions of the first two fixations when participants learned the other-race faces, with the first fixation modulated by the effect of experience and the second fixation modulated by the interaction between implicit bias and face recognition ability. Taken together, these findings suggest the complexity in understanding the perceptual and socio-cognitive influences on the other-race effect, and that observers with high face recognition ability may more likely evaluate racial features involuntarily when recognizing other-race faces.

Does Emotional Expression Moderate Implicit Racial Bias? Examining Bias Following Smiling and Angry Primes

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 570-590
Author(s):  
Afsaneh Raissi ◽  
Jennifer R. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Black Men ◽  
Emotional Expression ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Contrast Effect ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Implicit Racial Bias ◽  
Affect Misattribution Procedure

Given the pervasiveness of prejudice, researchers have become increasingly interested in examining racial bias at the intersection of race and other social and perceptual categories that have the potential to disrupt these negative attitudes. Across three studies, we examined whether the emotional expression of racial exemplars would moderate implicit racial bias. We found that racial bias on the Affect Misattribution Procedure only emerged in response to angry but not smiling Black male faces in comparison to White (Study 1) or White and Asian (Study 3) male faces with similar emotional expressions. Racial bias was also found toward Asian targets (Studies 2 and 3), but not only following angry primes. These findings suggest that negative stereotypes about Black men can create a contrast effect, making racial bias toward smiling faces less likely to be expressed in the presence of angry Black male faces.

scholarly journals Historical roots of implicit bias in slavery

2019 ◽  
pp. 201818816 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Keith Payne ◽  
Heidi A. Vuletich ◽  
Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Implicit Racial Bias ◽  
Explicit Bias ◽  
Black Residents ◽  
Structural Inequalities

Implicit racial bias remains widespread, even among individuals who explicitly reject prejudice. One reason for the persistence of implicit bias may be that it is maintained through structural and historical inequalities that change slowly. We investigated the historical persistence of implicit bias by comparing modern implicit bias with the proportion of the population enslaved in those counties in 1860. Counties and states more dependent on slavery before the Civil War displayed higher levels of pro-White implicit bias today among White residents and less pro-White bias among Black residents. These associations remained significant after controlling for explicit bias. The association between slave populations and implicit bias was partially explained by measures of structural inequalities. Our results support an interpretation of implicit bias as the cognitive residue of past and present structural inequalities.

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