Understanding Intolerance
Effects of Intolerance
What Can I Do?
Information from the online tests doesn't reveal why this is, but Banaji has some thoughts about it. "Age has come to be associated with negative qualities, such as decreases in stature, power, physical agility, and cognitive ability," she says. "Of course that's not true for everyone. I know a 78-year-old colleague who runs up stairs faster than his students." Whether it's myth or reality, however, generalization lumps everyone together.
Gays and women
More expected was prejudice against gays and lesbians. "We thought we would receive lots of angry mail when we added this test, because many Americans believe this is not a bias but an appropriate value to uphold," Banaji recalls. "It turns out to be a prejudice that people are least concerned or ashamed about. People are not happy to see their prejudices against other races and older people revealed. But they don't necessarily view an anti-gay bias with the same shame."
There's also relatively less shame in prejudice against the overweight. People show an implicit bias against the overweight and obese, but they are not too distressed about it.
Another unexpected finding reveals an unconscious feeling about women pursuing careers rather than staying at home. You'd think that would be strictly a male bias, but men and women show it equally. And to a startling degree. Eighty percent of test takers associate men with a "work" category and women with a "family" category.
Such prejudices are unconscious, of course, but they could influence things such as hiring and firing employees. "These tests are a research and educational tool to raise awareness," Banaji points out. "They should not be used otherwise. We hope that the test results will leave each person to decide for him- or herself what they wish to do with this new knowledge that reveals they are sometimes less than they aspire to be."
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