Extract from The Guardian
“Your internal implicit bias, that’s what’s inside,” he said. “You may or may not act on that.”
Shirodkar said implicit bias was not in itself a measure of racism, but could potentially be the cause of racism or discriminatory actions. He said it showed the discrimination experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples was not imaginary, and had a foundation in the perceptions of non-Indigenous Australians.
“It’s the conscious part, that’s what can cause the discriminatory actions,” he said. “But the reality is if your unconscious bias remains unconscious and unchallenged and you don’t identify it, if you are not even aware of it, then it is potentially weighing on all of your decisions and how you behave.”
The data comes from an implicit association test that was established as part of a collaboration between Project Implicit, a global project founded by researchers at Harvard University, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia, and a researcher at the University of Sydney. The Australian data has never been published before.
Respondents were shown black-and-white photographs from the late-19th and early 20th century of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and white people, and given a word to associate with that person.
The test measures how quickly the respondent clicks a button to associate a positive word with the image of an Indigenous person or a white person. People who are quick to click the button are perceived as holding a bias toward Indigenous people, while people who are slow to associate the positive word with the image of an Indigenous person are seen as biased against them.
The test is so sensitive that blinking when the response flashes up could change an individual’s score, but Shirodkar said it was useful, if the sample size was large enough, as a way to gauge broad levels of implicit bias in a society.
No one received a score of zero, which would suggest they had no implicit bias toward either group. In a fair society, he said, you would hope the average score would tend toward zero.
The average score was +0.29, biased toward caucasian faces, while the median score was +0.33. Young people aged 14 to 25 and older Australians over the age of 60 had the highest rates of bias toward white faces.
The results also found that men were more biased than women. But there was no reduction in the level of implicit bias held by people with a tertiary education. “Which is certainly a little depressing to see,” Shirodkar said.
An earlier study by the Australian National University found that 20% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school students in New South Wales and Victoria experienced racial discrimination from their teacher.
A similar test conducted in the United States in 2018 to test bias against black Americans found an average score of 0.30 and median score of 0.34 in favour of caucasian faces.
Shirodkar said: “The result implies that the level of implicit bias that Australian residents have toward Indigenous Australians is comparable in magnitude and direction to the implicit bias that US residents have towards African Americans.”
Researcher says implicit bias isn’t itself a measure of racism but can potentially cause it or discriminatory actions
Seventy-five per cent of Australians hold an
implicit bias against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, a
study has found.
The study, published in the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, is based on more than 11,000 unique responses to an implicit association test over 10 years.
According to Australian National University researcher Siddharth Shirodkar, the results show that “most Australian participants on average – regardless of background – hold an implicit bias against Indigenous Australians”.
A third of respondents showed a strong implicit bias against
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The most neutral group
were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples themselves, who
showed such a slight bias toward Indigenous people that “statistically
speaking they are unbiased”, Shirodkar said.The study, published in the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, is based on more than 11,000 unique responses to an implicit association test over 10 years.
According to Australian National University researcher Siddharth Shirodkar, the results show that “most Australian participants on average – regardless of background – hold an implicit bias against Indigenous Australians”.
“Your internal implicit bias, that’s what’s inside,” he said. “You may or may not act on that.”
Shirodkar said implicit bias was not in itself a measure of racism, but could potentially be the cause of racism or discriminatory actions. He said it showed the discrimination experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples was not imaginary, and had a foundation in the perceptions of non-Indigenous Australians.
“It’s the conscious part, that’s what can cause the discriminatory actions,” he said. “But the reality is if your unconscious bias remains unconscious and unchallenged and you don’t identify it, if you are not even aware of it, then it is potentially weighing on all of your decisions and how you behave.”
The data comes from an implicit association test that was established as part of a collaboration between Project Implicit, a global project founded by researchers at Harvard University, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia, and a researcher at the University of Sydney. The Australian data has never been published before.
Respondents were shown black-and-white photographs from the late-19th and early 20th century of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and white people, and given a word to associate with that person.
The test measures how quickly the respondent clicks a button to associate a positive word with the image of an Indigenous person or a white person. People who are quick to click the button are perceived as holding a bias toward Indigenous people, while people who are slow to associate the positive word with the image of an Indigenous person are seen as biased against them.
The test is so sensitive that blinking when the response flashes up could change an individual’s score, but Shirodkar said it was useful, if the sample size was large enough, as a way to gauge broad levels of implicit bias in a society.
No one received a score of zero, which would suggest they had no implicit bias toward either group. In a fair society, he said, you would hope the average score would tend toward zero.
The average score was +0.29, biased toward caucasian faces, while the median score was +0.33. Young people aged 14 to 25 and older Australians over the age of 60 had the highest rates of bias toward white faces.
The results also found that men were more biased than women. But there was no reduction in the level of implicit bias held by people with a tertiary education. “Which is certainly a little depressing to see,” Shirodkar said.
An earlier study by the Australian National University found that 20% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school students in New South Wales and Victoria experienced racial discrimination from their teacher.
A similar test conducted in the United States in 2018 to test bias against black Americans found an average score of 0.30 and median score of 0.34 in favour of caucasian faces.
Shirodkar said: “The result implies that the level of implicit bias that Australian residents have toward Indigenous Australians is comparable in magnitude and direction to the implicit bias that US residents have towards African Americans.”
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