Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Implicit Bias and Racism
- Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology
- The Cambridge Handbook of Implicit Bias and Racism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Taking Stock of Explicit and Implicit Prejudice
- 1 Report from the NSF Conference on Implicit Bias
- Section I What is Implicit Bias and (How) Can We Measure It?
- Introduction
- 2 Implicit Bias: What Is It?
- 3 Lessons from Two Decades of Project Implicit
- 4 Aversive Racism and Implicit Bias
- 5 Stretching the Limits of Science: Was the Implicit-Racism Debate a “Bridge Too Far” for Social Psychology?
- Section II Do Measures of Implicit Bias Predict Cognition and Behavior?
- Section III Challenges of Research on Implicit Bias
- Section IV Improving Measurement and Theorizing About Implicit Bias
- Section V How to Change Implicit Bias?
- Section VI Explicit Prejudice; Alive and Well?
- Section VII The Public’s (Mis)understanding of Implicit Bias
- Index
- References
5 - Stretching the Limits of Science: Was the Implicit-Racism Debate a “Bridge Too Far” for Social Psychology?
from Section I - What is Implicit Bias and (How) Can We Measure It?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 December 2024
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Implicit Bias and Racism
- Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology
- The Cambridge Handbook of Implicit Bias and Racism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Taking Stock of Explicit and Implicit Prejudice
- 1 Report from the NSF Conference on Implicit Bias
- Section I What is Implicit Bias and (How) Can We Measure It?
- Introduction
- 2 Implicit Bias: What Is It?
- 3 Lessons from Two Decades of Project Implicit
- 4 Aversive Racism and Implicit Bias
- 5 Stretching the Limits of Science: Was the Implicit-Racism Debate a “Bridge Too Far” for Social Psychology?
- Section II Do Measures of Implicit Bias Predict Cognition and Behavior?
- Section III Challenges of Research on Implicit Bias
- Section IV Improving Measurement and Theorizing About Implicit Bias
- Section V How to Change Implicit Bias?
- Section VI Explicit Prejudice; Alive and Well?
- Section VII The Public’s (Mis)understanding of Implicit Bias
- Index
- References
Summary
The attentive public widely believes a false proposition, namely, that the race Implicit Association Test (“IAT”) measures unconscious bias within individuals that causes discriminatory behavior. We document how prominent social psychologists created this misconception and the field helped perpetuate it for years, while skeptics were portrayed as a small group of non-experts with questionable motives. When a group highly values a goal and leaders of the group reward commitment to that goal while marginalizing dissent, the group will often go too far before it realizes that it has gone too far. To avoid the sort of groupthink that produced the mismatch between what science now knows about the race IAT and what the public believes, social psychologists need to self-consciously embrace skepticism when evaluating claims consistent with their beliefs and values, and governing bodies need to put in place mechanisms that ensure that official pronouncements on policy issues, such as white papers and amicus briefs, are the product of rigorous and balanced reviews of the scientific evidence and its limitations.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Implicit Bias and Racism , pp. 149 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
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