image: The top panel displays the average level of implicit race bias among White residents in each county. The bottom panel displays the proportion of the population in each county enslaved in the 1860 US Census. Counties that were more heavily dependent on slavery in 1860 have greater implicit racial bias today. Areas in white have insufficient data. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Heidi A. Vuletich.
A study finds that modern populations in US counties that had high slave populations in 1860 exhibit relatively greater implicit racial bias. Implicit bias is an automatic mental association triggered when thinking about a specific social group. B. Keith Payne and colleagues examined the geographic differences in implicit bias in populations of more than 1,300 US counties. Rather than track individual implicit bias, which can be fleeting or difficult to discern, the authors compared 1860 census data to aggregated results collected by Project Implicit from 2004 to 2017. The authors note that the Bias of Crowds model more accurately reflects implicit bias as a function of social contexts, compared with individual traits. The authors report that counties with higher proportions of slaves in 1860 displayed higher pro-White bias among White residents and lower pro-White bias among Black residents, who had an overall lower rate of implicit bias and higher variability. To determine whether structural inequalities inform the Bias of Crowds model, the authors also examined associations with structural inequalities in the modern environment, including poverty, intergenerational mobility, and neighborhood segregation. Though the associations are not necessarily causative, modifying social environments, rather than addressing individual attitudes, may help address lingering implicit bias, according to the authors.
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Article #18-18816: "Historical roots of implicit bias in slavery," by B. Keith Payne, Heidi Vuletich, and Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi.
MEDIA CONTACT: B. Keith Payne, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC; tel: 919-962-2055; e-mail: <payne@unc.edu>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences