The Dark Dark Side of the Mind

by Mahzarin R. Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
Mahzarin Banaji

Whatever social changes have occurred that involve race, our children are not different from us in their implicit race attitude. What does this mean, given the change in gender stereotypes by age? Does it mean that in spite of all the changes since civil rights legislation, social change and media change, that a 10 year old and a 70 year old have the same race attitude? Does it mean that racially our lives are still so segregated that that to nudge implicit attitudes we haven’t created the appropriate conditions of contact?

Continue reading The Dark Dark Side of the Mind

September 19th, 2011 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed) | Tags: , , | Category: Humans, Participants

A Story in Two Parts, With An Ending Yet To Be Written

by Paula M. L. Moya

The word “culture” is sometimes recruited as a proxy for “race” in common parlance, and the familiar story of race predisposes us to understand the differences between European and Asian populations in biological, rather than cultural, terms. Culture is a significant shaper of human cognition, motivation, and emotion. The story of race as a biological thing that humans either have or are is not only inaccurate, but also it serves to distort our understanding of human nature. Another way of saying this is that human difference really matters — but not in the way most people think it does.

Continue reading A Story in Two Parts, With An Ending Yet To Be Written

May 2nd, 2011 | 29 comments - (Comments are closed) | Tags: , , | Category: current controversies, Humans, Participants