Does Unconscious Racism Exist? Author(s): Lincoln Quillian Reviewed work(s): Source: Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol.

71, No. 1 (Mar., 2008), pp. 6-11 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20141814 . Accessed: 31/10/2012 20:33
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Psychology Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

Social Psychology Quarterly 2008, Vol. 71, No. 1,6-11

Introduction

to Unconscious

Racism

Debate

TROVDUSTER
New YorkUniversity
At first arcane a debate about whether racism appears to be an there can be unconscious glance, a modern-day exercise of little consequence, to queries academic about equivalent ' on pinheads. capacities angels terpsichorean But with a second look, this is an important debate with some sharply contested pol are trying to either challenge In legal circles, adversaries and dump?or icy implications. doctrine. The stakes are high. The fundamental and impact" those who the assumption importance of emphasize of keeping a focus on disparate is that intentionality to do with outcome?that need have little or even nothing "disparate

buttress?the domain impact whether

one intends to discriminate or not, if the impact of the action is sufficiently differ ent on different groups, the government needs to step in and redress grievances and injus as tices caused action. that The has consequences, important policy by corollary equally some surely have noticed in the gradual erosion of affirmative action over and continued

insists on "a smoking gun the last twenty-five years by a supreme court that increasingly use a to is version The Justice Society trying of intentionality. Equal of the unconscious to chip away at the reliance on theframe of conscious racism argument intentionality. that the basic issue For the social science audience of these two articles, I suggest is not whether there is evidence our actions. the researchers have can establish (even Readers will if unconscious to assess racism unconscious racism, but whether empirical could be established) of how this influences the translation from thought to action, often based then make (e.g. doctors' the link as to where treat differential

"

on lab experiments (as Tetlock and Mitchell point out), and these actions are most relevant to real world circumstances ment more of heart disease To disentangle by race). the presumed

link between attitudes and behavior, we can go back than half a century to a classic study of how even consciously and explicitly expressed can be a poor predictor customers racial prejudice behavior. of discriminatory (Chinese were served politely in restaurants where the proprietors had previously claimed they would we should arena of whether current not be welcomed). leave behind this whole Perhaps with images and pictures and brain scans reveal (or don't reveal) high-tech experiments unconscious racism and instead re-emphasize the methodological and empirical problem of to the evidence assertion that it can influence behavior getting from the hypothetical of if, or how it does.

Does Unconscious Racism

xist?*

Northwestern University
This the existence evidence racism. Research of a form of unconscious that most persons have deeply held negative without conscious lead to subtle discrimination on implicit associations awareness.

LINCOLN QUILURN

essay

argues for

prejudice provides good that can with minority groups

attitudes is brieflyreviewed.Criticisms of the implicit The evidence prejudice for implicit with literature raised byArkesand Tetlock (2004) are discussed, but found tobe inconsistent
several findings of prejudice research.

* Address

Department Avenue, Chicago northwestern.edu.

to Lincoln Quillian, correspondence of Sociology, Northwestern University, 1810 Evanston, IL 60208; l-quillian@

From

American society. The images originate from the media and our personal observations, 6

childhood we are inundated with images that convey racial inequality in

RRCISM 6XIST? 7 DO S UNCONSCIOUS

and both represent actual inequality and con struct a view of that inequality that includes sociology by survey researchers, ethnogra phers, and others (e.g., Schuman et al. 1997; Blee 2002) are also important causes of dis crimination. Rather than replacing explicit attitudes, implicit attitudes form a second level of attitudes thatbecome manifest in cer tain behaviors and contexts (Banaji, Nosek, and Greenwald 2004). While my focus in this
essay is on race, research has also demonstrat

stereotypical distortions. From these images we learn that African Americans and Latinos are more often impoverished, in troublewith the law, and in positions of lower authority thanwhites. While not all images are negative or stereotype-consistent, the overall effect is to link African Americans and Latinos with pre dominately negative social characteristics. Contradicting these images, we also learn a principled narrative regarding the irrele vance of race: we are told publicly that race

ed the existence of implicit attitudes for other attitude objects, including gender, social class,
and age.

should not matter, thatwe should judge indi viduals by the content of theircharacter rather than the color of their skin. This message cor responds to the view ofAmerica as a land of opportunity and is celebrated in commemora tions of the Civil Rights Movement. Reflec ting this principle, on survey questionnaires a

these nearly unconscious negative associations with minority racial groups the psychology literatureuses the terms implicit prejudice (and implicit cognition, implicit and associations, implicit stereotypes). a term is from memory research refer Implicit

For

Supposing we limit ourselves to persons who renounce open prejudice and accept the prin ciple of colorblindness. Are there ways in which the negative representations of mem bers of minority groups influence thoughts and actions despite well-intentioned efforts to the contrary?How are the social positions of different racial groups understood by per centers of different races? Might unconscious bias help to explain the consistent high levels of discrimination in housing and labor mar

largemajority of Americans express support for equal treatment regardless of race et al. 1997). (Schuman What are the effects of these contradicto ry images and ideals on our actions?

ring to memories from past socialization or experiences that affect current thought and
behavior without conscious awareness.

Implicit attitudes are difficult to access through introspection, but they are not wholly unconscious either: with directed introspec tion their impact can be somewhat controlled

(Kawakami et al. 2000). For recent reviews of the implicit prejudice literature, see Quillian (2006) on race or Fazio and Olson (2003) on

implicit attitudes in general. For this essay, I take unconscious racism to be identical to implicit prejudice. It may seem impossible to study preju
dices of which we are unaware. The solution to

kets revealed in sociological and economic audit studies? Although not well-known tomost sociol ogists, an influential literature in psychology

this problem has come by adapting experi mental techniques from studies ofmemory to the study of prejudice. While several methods to assess implicit attitudes are used in the empirical literature, I discuss only the two most used methods: rapid priming and the thought process is first"primed" either toward a target group or toward a contrast group before per forming a task.The primes, for instance, could be thewords "black" and "white," or images of black and white faces. In implicit prejudice experiments, the prime is flashed too quickly for the respondent to consciously read or rec implicit association test (IAT). In priming, each respondent's

on implicit prejudice sheds lighton several of these questions. This literaturehas shown that even those who espouse the ideal of color

positive traits and African Americans and Latinos with mostly negative traits. Moreover, this literature shows that these deep associa tions can affect our thoughts and actions with
out conscious awareness,

blindness tend to associate whites with mostly

scious racial bias in decisions and action. To be sure, the explicit attitudes long studied in

creating

uncon

ognize the prime. The subject is then asked to perform an evaluation task, such as interpret ing the behavior of a race-unspecified target

8 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OURRTC-RLY

figure acting in an ambiguously
way. This procedure produces a

threatening
consistent

and threatening than subjects primed with the white prime (see Devine 1989; Wittenbrink, Judd, and Park 1997). The implicit stereotype of blacks as hostile and threatening is activat ed by the implicit prime, affecting judgment of the figure's behavior without conscious awareness that the implicit stereotype has
activated.

result: subjects who have been primed with the black prime tend to view the actions of the race-unspecified target figure as more hostile

icizes the implicit prejudice interpretation of the IAT and the very idea of implicit preju dice. In the remainder of this essay, I summa rize the two main arguments theymake, as well as the evidence that leads me to ultimate ly reject their interpretations. One of Arkes and Tetlock's arguments is that implicit attitudemeasures capture social

accepted by most psychologists, this interpre tation has engendered some controversy. A recent essay by Arkes and Tetlock (2004) crit

While the implicit prejudice interpreta tion of the priming and IAT measures is

been

task (see Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz 1998; Fazio and Olson 2003; Lane et al. 2007). Empirically, when the task pairs con cepts related to "white" with "good" and "black" with "bad," the largemajority ofwhite subjects (and a significant minority of black subjects) are able to faster and more accurate

In the implicit association test, subjects are tested as to the speed at which they can associate pairs of concepts in response to a

ly known stereotypes that individuals do not necessarily believe. Almost all Americans are aware of theprevalent stereotypes of the major racial groups (Devine and Elliott 1995). Arkes and Tetlock (2004:262) suggest that results of implicit attitude tests merely reflect this knowledge; they claim, "If I am aware of the cultural stereotype, I have all the cognitive software that I need tomanifest prejudice on the IAT." Because these stereotypes are not consciously believed, they argue these tests do not demonstrate prejudice or racism. Arkes and Tetlock are right that implicit associations are learned from the broader cul ture. Rather than debating whether implicit attitudes represent truebeliefs, a betterway to address the appropriateness of the termpreju dice or racism is to address the question I raised at the beginning of this essay: can indi

ly associate related conceptual pairs than when the task pairs concepts related to "white" with "bad" and "black" with "good." The difference reflects the strong association of whites with positive traits and blacks with negative traits in the minds of most whites (and some blacks). Subjects can consciously override

these implicit prejudices in their responses, but to do so requires time and effort. The IAT is often administered on a at online and is available computer

(Project http://www.implicit.harvard.edu one test the is of the Implicit 2008). Taking best ways to get an intuitive idea of the con

cept and measurement of implicit attitudes. The majority view in psychology is that these experiments show that the largemajori tyofwhites and some nonwhites hold negative implicit associations towardminority groups.

viduals who explicitly tryto act in race-neutral ways but hold negative implicit attitudes towardminorities do so? Or do these implicit attitudes tend to cause discriminatory action in some situations, despite conscious disavow If implicit attitudes can be shown to independently cause some discrimi nation, thenmoral condemnation is appropri ate, as is the label of prejudice or racism. Several experiments link implicit associa al of racial bias?

As demonstrated by the priming experiments and other evidence Iwill discuss below, these associations can affect thought and action without conscious awareness. Studies find low correlation between scores on the IAT and

explicit beliefs about members of target racial groups measured by attitude questionnaires, supporting the view they represent a distinct level of attitude.

ly and lack of eye contact (McConnell and and Liebold Kawakami, 2001; Dovidio, Gaertner 2002). Lane et al. (2007) provide a recent review of a large number of studies

tions and certain types of discriminatory behavior. Implicit prejudice has been correlat ed with negative nonverbal behaviors suggest ing unfriendliness in interactionswith targets, such as facial expressions that are less friend

6XIST? 9 RACISM DO S UNCONSCIOUS

linking implicit attitudesmeasured on the IAT with behaviors reported on questionnaires or observed inpsychology labs. In general, stud ies suggest that implicit prejudice is often manifest in subtle behaviors in interaction that are difficult for respondents to consciously control, such as nonverbal cues to affect and lexical errors in speech. Behaviors more imental results provide ample reason to sus pect that implicit attitudes are a source of sig nificant discrimination in consequential real

world decisions. Arkes and Tetlock's other criticism is that implicit prejudice is capturing a social process by which individuals use group characteristics to draw conclusions about individuals in the face of uncertainty.Their model is essentially the same as one referred to in the economics literature as statistical discrimination (Aigner and Cain 1977). Noting the social reality that African Americans commit certain crimes at higher rates thanwhites, they argue thatnega tive associations with African Americans in part just reflect this actual association. They

strongly controlled by conscious thought, notably speech content, are more strongly linked to explicit racial attitudes. Yet these subtle or quick behaviors are important in many situations and cannot be dismissed: Dovidio et al. (2002), for instance, show that nonverbal behaviors more strongly correlate

to perceptions of friendliness by an interaction partner than do verbal statements. The most important question for under standing the significance of implicit attitude research is the effect that implicit attitudes have on major inequality-relevant decisions such as to hire, to rent, or to promote. Field ods

claim(1977:268):

cognitivestandardsfor identifying Using current implicit prejudice in social psychology, we would be required to label realistic Bayesian
information the most that have of as prejudiced in all but processors societies egalitarian homogeneously all differences in eradicating succeeded significance among identifiable

in real-world settings and implicit prejudice, but evidence from laboratory and vignette studies suggests implicit prejudice is likely to

labor, housing, and retail markets (Ayres 2001; Bertrand and Mullainathan 2004; Pager 2003; Turner et al. 2002). Little research has investigated the connection between outcomes

audit studies using quasi-experimental meth involving testers have produced strong evidence of high rates of discrimination in

evaluative

groups.

Arkes and Tetlock argue implicit preju dice reflects real differences in average behav iors across racial groups, justifying negative

implicit associations and racial discrimination in some situations.

interaction suggest that implicit prejudice is negatively related to comfort in interaction with minority candidates, for instance, which may then affect decisions (e.g. hiring) by sub tly affecting opinions toward candidates in

be one cause of discrimination in significant decisions and behaviors. Laboratory studies showing discrimination in subtle behaviors in

though, that statistical discrimination is based on a logic inwhich we judge unfamiliar indi viduals by the average characteristics of their racial group?a form of guilt by association many find ethically unacceptable, even if sta tistical discrimination does on average increase accuracy of estimates. In fact, Arkes and Tetlock have no evi dence to show that something like statistical discrimination can explain implicit prejudice;

Arkes and Tetlock's second argument applies as well to discrimination based in explicit rather than implicit attitudes. Note,

more realistic settings is a study of doctors by Green et al. (forthcoming). They find an asso ciation between anti-black bias measured on

interactions relevant to important decisions (e.g. hiring interviews). A recent study that is a step toward considering implicit attitudes in

the IAT and recommendations of less aggres sive treatment for heart disease in vignettes presented with portraits of black patients than in vignettes with portraits of white patients. While more research is needed, current exper

theymerely suggest it as a possible explana tion of negative implicit association with members of minority groups. Yet statistical discrimination requires a stronger assumption than a vague correspondence between actual behavioral differences in the real world. Instead, it requires that individuals perceive

10 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY QURRT6RLY

correctly both thedirections and roughmagni tudes of association between group member ship and social characteristics (this iswhat is required to act as a "realistic Bayesian infor mation processor"). In the case of crime, for implicit associations favoring whites over African Americans are much more often pre sent among whites than African Americans (Noseck, Banaji, and Greenwald 2002). Implicit attitude research has shown that deep negative associations form a hidden level

of preferences in theminds of many persons directed against stigmatized racial groups. further research is needed to better offender, then they need to incorporate this While information into decisions such as whether or establish the significance of implicit prejudice not to cross the streetwhen a black stranger for major forms of discrimination, the current In two papers I have written with Devah Pager, we have examined the accuracy of the perceived association between race and crime (Quillian and Pager 2001, 2007). We consider the role of neighborhood racial composition, level, and other characteristics in forming impressions of area crime rates and victimization rates; we contrast this to how economic
approaches.

instance, individuals need to perceive at least roughly correctly how much more likely they are to be victimized by a black than a white

literature is sufficient to demonstrate the wide

spread existence of associations described as unconscious racism.

accurately

R F R NC S
Aigner, DJ and G. Cain. of Discrimination and Labor Arkes, Hal R. tions of Jackson Relations and Philip 1977. "The Review in Labor Markets." E. Tetlock. Statistical Theory Industrial 2004. "Attribu

30:175-87

find systematic biases: in people's minds, crime rates are more strongly and less conditionally linked to neighborhood racial composition than they actually are. Rather than finding that the associations between race and crime thatArkes and Tetlock argue

these characteristics are associated with actual neighborhood crime rates and victimization rates.We

or "Would Jesse Implicit Prejudice, 'Fail' the Implicit Association Test?"

Psychological Ian. 2001. Ayres,

Inquiry 24:257-278. Pervasive Unconven Prejudice? tional Evidence of Race and Gender Discrimi IL: The University of Chicago

nation. Chicago, Press. Banaji, Mahzarin, Greenwald. Science: A 2004.

Brian A. Nosek, "No place

may represent the accurate basis for actions of a "realistic Bayesian information processor," we find that these associations tend to be sys tematically exaggerated, more consistent with a model of distorted stereotypes. Finally, the presence of substantial race

Response

and Anthony G. for Nostalgia in to Arkes and Tetlock." "Are Emily and Market Review

Psychological Inquiry 15:279-310. 2004. Bertrand, M. and S. Mullainathan. and Greg More Jamal? A Field Discrimination." 94:991-1013. Blee, Katherine. Women in the Hate 1989. Employable Experiment American Inside

than Lakisha on Labor Economic

differences

turing actually existing statistical associations between racial group membership and any "differences of evaluative significance," then we should find that these same associations should be present among individuals who are white, African American, or any other race. Similarly, if these associations merely repre sent knowledge (but not belief) of a widely

in implicit prejudice levels is inconsistentwith both of Arkes and Tetlock's alternative interpretations of implicit associa tions. If implicit associations are simply cap

Devine,

University Patricia. Journal 56:5-18.

Racism: Organized Movement. Berkeley, CA: of California Press. "Stereotypes and Controlled and Prejudice: Components." Psychology

2002.

Their Automatic

of Personality and Andrew

and Social Elliot.

Devine,

Patricia

1995. "Are Racial

Stereotypes Really Fading? The Princeton

Revisited." and Social Trilogy Personality Psychology Bulletin 21:1139-1142. John E, Kerry Kawakami, and Samuel L. Dovidio, Gaertner. 2002. "Implicit and Explicit Prejudice and Interracial Journal Interaction." of Fazio, Personality R. and M. Social Use." 297-327. Green, Alexander, Dana Carney, Daniel Pallin, Long and Social Olson. 82:62-68. Psychology 2003. "Implicit Measures in Research: their Meaning and of Psychology 54:

known social stereotype, thenwe should find roughly similar rates of knowledge across racial groups (or perhaps even higher knowl

edge formembers of the target group of the stereotype). Yet in fact, studies find that

Cognition Annual Review

6XIST? 11 RACISM DO S UNCONSCIOUS

Lisa Kristal Ngo, Raymond, Nahzarin Forthcoming. Banaji. among Lezzoni, and Bias Record." 937-75. Project Implicit. Demonstration Web Site. Available Accessed at Jan American Journal of Sociology 108: "Implicit of its Prediction and Physicians and White Decisions for Black Thrombolysis Patients." Journal Greenwald, Anthony Jordan L.K. Individual The of General G., Debbie Internal Medicine. E. McGhee, 1998. and

http://www.implicit.harvard.edu. 16, 2008. Quillian, Lincoln. 2006. Annual "New Understanding Discrimination." 32: 299-328. Quillian, Lincoln and Devah Higher Crime? Racial

Differences

Personality 1480. Kawakami,

Implicit and

"Measuring in Implicit Cognition: Test." Journal Association of Social Psychology 74:1464

Schwartz.

to Approaches and Prejudice Review of Sociology "Black Pager. 2001. The Role of Racial of Neighborhood 107:

Neighbors,

Sander Jasper Moll, Kerry, John Dovidio, Hermsen, and Abby Russin. 2000. "Just Say No in the Effects of Training (to Stereotyping): on Association of Stereotypie Journal of Personality Stereotype Activation." and Social Psychology 78: 871-888. Kristin, Mahzarin Banaji, 2007. Brian Nosek, and

in Evaluations Stereotypes Crime." American Journal 717-67.

of Sociology

Negation

Quillian, Lincoln and Devah Pager. 2007. Risk: Stereotype Amplification Perceived Risk of Criminal Paper presented

"Estimating and the on

Victimization."

Lane,

at the Institute for Research

and "Understanding Anthony Greenwald. IV" Test: the Association Pp. Implicit Using in Implicit Measures 59-101 of Attitude, edited by Bernd Wittenbrink New York: The Guilford McConnell, among natory Racial Social Allen and Norbert Press. 2001. "Relations Schwarz.

Poverty Conference, Madison, WI, June. Bobo, Schuman, Howard, Charlotte Steeh, Lawrence in 1997. Racial Attitudes and Maria Krysan. America: Edition. Press. Turner, Margery A., Stephen Galster, and John Yinger. L. C. Ross, George 2002. Discrimination Trends and Cambridge, Revised Interpretations. MA: Harvard University

and Jill Liebold.

the Implicit Association Test, Discrimi of and Explicit Measures Behavior, Attitudes." Journal of Experimental

Noseck,

37: 435-442. Psychology and Anthony D. Mahzarin Banaji, 2002. Greenwald. Implicit "Harvesting from a Demonstration Attitudes and Beliefs Brian, Site." Group Dynamics 6:101-115. 2003. "The Mark of a Criminal Devah.

in Metropolitan National Markets: Housing I HDS Results from Phase 2000. Washington D.C.: Urban Institute. Wittenbrink, Park. Bernd, Charles M. Judd, and Bernadette at 1997. "Evidence for Racial Prejudice Level and Measures." Psychology with Its Relationship Journal of Personali 72: 262-274.

the Implicit Questionnaire tyand Social

Web Pager,

Lincoln Quillian
Northwestern such as

is associate professor of sociology andfellow of theInstitute for Policy Research at

His research schools, focuses on and peers on racial individual contexts and the effects of social inequality recent his chances. Among life publications

University.

are "NewApproaches toUnderstanding Racial Prejudice and Discrimination" published in the2006 Do" Annual Review of Sociology and "Walking theTalk? What Employers Say VersusWhat they (withDevah Pager) published in 2005 inAmerican Sociological Review. He received his PhD in 1997fromHarvard University.

neighborhoods,