Reply Post

Your reply post should read approximately 500 to 600 words and should reference at least one citation from the article the other student read for their initial post. To receive the maximum points, your post should include a reference from all of this week’s readings along with an article other students read.

Parameters

● Analyze one student’s initial post. What are one or two major questions you have after reading their post?

● Reread the section(s) of the readings they reference, as well as the article they cited; then, use these sources to address your question(s)

● Your reply post should follow APA guidelines

Peer: Heymi

I took both the Race IAT test and Weapons IAT test from the Implicit Associations Tests, and even thougth I know that as a human I have implicit biasis, It gets akward when it gets shown on your face a result of it. Implicit bias is a complicated subject to discuss. In their article, Carter et al. (2020) describe bias as differences in how people are seen and treated because of their particular characteristics and group features, such as gender, skin color, or ethnicity. This can be beneficial for some or harmful for others. For example, according to their research, López et al. (2018), “street race” white males had better physical health than “street race” Latinx males, but “street race” Latinxs males had better mental health than “street race” white males.

The most challenging part of learning about my implicit biases was its results. It places you in a position of guilt to make you think you feel inferior to others. You have to be constantly reminding yourself that it was just a test. This is a topic you try to put aside and avoid so that there is no inside conflict in your head. While I was taking the test, there was an internal conflict.

The challenging part about learning that I have implicit biases was finding out the race that I have preferences toward. It made me feel uncomfortable and challenged at the same time. At first, I thought the test was ridiculous and felt attacked. Then I realized the test is made to see what you feel more comfortable with. It shows what you have been influenced to believe during your lifetime. The test was repetitive, but it was only to see if you are consistent in your beliefs. It is easier for us to be consistent in things we have been molded into.

I learned many new things from the articles we read this week. One major learning point for me was the fact that companies actually invest more than 8 billion in training that helps their employees be more aware of other races. According to Carter et al. (2020), “8 billion is spent on diversity training annually”. I find this hard to believe because I worked in many companies that were inclusive. However, their training on how to be respectful and tolerant towards other people was fragile. I could see that a lot of money is invested in it, but I don’t think it is being used correctly or the training techniques need to change. This could be deducted by the outcome many of these companies are having, and according to their findings, their process is still slow.

In the article by Pelechrinis, K. (2023). Bias is described as something beneficial rather than damaging. The author explains how many sports teams use it so they can win. Most home teams use their referee to get a step ahead of the other team. They call this “Referee bias,” where the home field takes advantage of the referee, making use of the bias to foul the opposite team. This is very contradictory to the other articles, where we can see how other races and people are affected by bias. However, in this article, we can actually see that when a group of people normalizes this behavior, it becomes normal. Houwer (2019) believes that implicit bias is a behavior in which people learn something they do is a norm, more than something they have.

References:

Carter, E. R., Onyeador, I. N., & Lewis Jr., N. A. (2020). Developing & delivering effective anti-bias training: Challenges & recommendations. Behavioral Science & Policy, 6(1), 57-70. 10200189 (fit.edu)Links to an external site.

Links to an external site.

De Houwer, J. (2019). Implicit bias is behavior: A functional-cognitive perspective on implicit bias. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(5), 835-840. Implicit Bias Is Behavior_ A Functional-Cognitive Perspective on Implicit Bias (fit.edu)Links to an external site.

Links to an external site.

López, N., Vargas, E., Juarez, M., Cacari-Stone, L., & Bettez, S. (2018). What’s your “street race”? Leveraging multidimensional measures of race and intersectionality for examining physical and mental health status among Latinxs. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 4(1), 49-66. Whatˇs Your ˝Street Race˛_ Leveraging M…and Mental Health Status among Latinxs (fit.edu)Links to an external site

Links to an external site.

Pelechrinis, K. (2023).Quantifying implicit biases in refereeing using NBA referees as a testbed. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1–11. https://doi-org.portal.lib.fit.edu/10.1038/s41598-023-31799-y