Implicit Prejudices against American Indians

People

Current conceptualizations of the causes or racism focus on the nature of both explicit and implicit cognitive processes. Explicit processes occur on a conscious level, and prejudicial attitudes that are explicit result in deliberate discrimination directed at members of an outgroup. Implicit processes occur automatically, and arise from highly over-learned "knee-jerk" responses. Prejudicial attitudes that are implicit can produce discrimination against an outgroup member automatically. Such attitudes can cause otherwise non-prejudiced people to discriminate when they lack the opportunity to engage in controlled, explicit processing. There is a great deal of evidence in the literature for the role of implicit prejudice in discrimination against African Americans, however few studies have examined such prejudices against other marginalized groups. This study will examine the hypothesis that implicit prejudices against American Indians are prevalent among non-Indian college students.