William Atkins
Friday, 09 January 2009 22:04
Science -
Health
Page 3 of 4
Participants were earlier asked to predict their reaction to either racially-biased comment made by the white actor.
Overall, they predicted they would be
“highly upset” by either comment and would not choose the white person (actor) as their partner.
However, the researchers found that the participants experiencing the scene first-hand did not seem very upset by it.
In fact, about two out of three participants (63%) selected the white person over the black person as their partner in the experiment.
The researchers reported in the paper's abstract,
“… when people actually experienced this event [an act of racism]
they showed relatively little emotional distress.”
The researchers also found that
“… people overestimated the degree to which a racist comment would provoke social rejection of the racist.”
Dr. Kawakami stated,
"It's like these nasty racist comments aren't having an effect…. It's important to remind people that just because a black man has been elected as president doesn't mean racism is no longer a problem or issue in the States." [Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph (1-9-09): “
Study: Gap in what we say vs. what we do about racism”]
Page four ends the story with conclusions from the authors.
