Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases

Washington Post ^ | 1/30/2006 | Shankar Vedantam

[Jibaholic]

Another study presented at the conference, which was in Palm Springs, Calif., explored relationships between racial bias and political affiliation by analyzing self-reported beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests that measure implicit attitudes -- subtle stereotypes people hold about various groups.

As an ex-liberal this is not surprising. I spent the first 32 year of my life trying to blame black poverty on racism/bad schools/etc... rather than self-destructive behavior such as out of wedlock childbirths. This is not a truth for conservatives to run from, but to embrace. If we really want to end black poverty once and for all, we can not be afraid to say that the emporer has no clothes.

[Paradox]

I read this differently. I see it as conservatives are more honest about biases that they know they have.

BINGO! No self respecting leftist would EVER admit to himself, much less someone else, that he has any racial bias. Conservative tend to admit those that they have.

[longtermmemmory]

This is all just part of the left wing ivory tower effort to say conservive is a mental disease.

I think we need to start defunding the ivory tower.

Our tax dollars paid for this?

[r9etb]

Bush bots explained at last.

I see you're poking at your "reward center." However, I believe the author's point is that it's located above your navel.

[MEGoody]

Bush bots explained at last.

So you have no particular candidates of any party you prefer? No one in the Constitution Party? No one in the Libertarian Party? No favored candidate?

I'm sure you realize that, if you DO have a favored candidate, this study applies to you as well. :)

[rundown73]

"AM I ON CRACK, OR DID THE WASHINGTON POST JUST TRY TO REPORT AS SCIENTIFIC, UNCHANGABLE FACT THAT ALL CONSERVATIVES ARE RACISTS"


If those are the two options, then you are on crack.
The Washington Post reported that some guy says that "Republicans are supported by prejuded whites". And that guy says there is a lot of scientific evidence to support him.

That's completely different. For example: Republicans are supported by the NRA.
I think that statement is true. Does that meant the ALL republicans are the NRA? No.

Mainstream Republicans aren't responsible for what racists do. But if it makes us uncomfortable that racists vote for our party, then maybe we should figure out how to change that.

[ModelBreaker]

This study is necessarily skewed by the fact that blacks are overwhelmingly democrats. So when you test whether dems or republicans are more or less predjudiced, the dems start off with a built in advantage of about 20% because about that portion of their base (as opposed to the R base) are black.

A less flawed design would test white dems vs white republicans.

[martin_fierro]

Hey, I'M neutral.

[GOPJ]

It still doesn't explain how how a state like Massachuttes can elect and reelect a fat drunk who's also a killer. Anyone understand the folks of Massachuttes?

When presented with negative information about the candidates they liked, partisans of all stripes found ways to discount it, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected, furthermore, the brain scans showed that volunteers gave themselves feel-good pats -- the scans showed that "reward centers" in volunteers' brains were activated. The psychologist observed that the way these subjects dealt with unwelcome information had curious parallels with drug addiction as addicts also reward themselves for wrong-headed behavior.

[rundown73]

Actually, the study did consider only whites. From the article:

"For their study, Nosek, Banaji and social psychologist Erik Thompson culled self-acknowledged views about blacks from nearly 130,000 whites, who volunteered online to participate in a widely used test of racial bias that measures the speed of people's associations between black or white faces and positive or negative words. "

[Bullitt]

FU WAPO

[Bullitt]

FU WAPO

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.

Tell that to any black family who has dared to move into a white neighborhood in a liberal mecca like Philadelphia or Boston.

[Drew68]

The analysis found that substantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces -- evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.

So all Americans are racist but Bush voters are just a little bit more racist?

[Galveston Grl]

Raise your hand if you are suprised to see Marxist deem their political and social opposition as "mentally ill." Now if only they can get the State mental prisions in place for a final solution to this horrible disease of poitial incorrectness/hate!

[One4Indictment]

My biases aren't hidden...I HATE LIBERALS!!!...I feel much better now.

[syriacus]

Quite an article. Liberals exhibiting "Not in My Backyard"ism....like Kennedy opposing the windmills.