By Chris Hoenig
When a person knows a Black person is intelligent, he or she is more likely to subconsciously believe that person has lighter skin than the person really does, proving a subconscious bias against dark-skinned Blacks, according to a new study.
Researchers at San Francisco State University divided study participants125 students at the university who received partial course credit for taking partinto two groups, subliminally ingraining the word “educated” into the minds of one group and the words “ignorant” and “athletic” into the minds of the other. Participants were all then shown a picture of the same Black man. Later, after going through a distraction exercise, they went through a process where they were shown four different pictures or groups of pictures, which included the original picture and/or up to six others, each one altered to change the skin tonethree were lighter (by 25, 37 and 50 percent), three were darker (by the same proportions). After seeing each picture/group of pictures, participants had to identify whether the original photo had been on the screen.
