Bernstein, M., Young, S., Claypool, Article Review

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Results shows that exposure to positive exemplars does indeed reduce implicit bias, but explicit association did not appear to change due to the election results.

Conclusions-

Bias and prejudice, particularly innate views of race, are quite difficult to ascertain, even more so they are resistant to social change. It was politically "correct" and popular, especially among university students, to feel positive toward the Obama election. Research also shows that "counter-stereotypic exemplars can easily be subtyped or fenced off from the superordinate group, thus protecting the original stereotype" (p. 150).

Overall, the data strongly suggests that the Obama election will indeed have a positive impact on attitudes towards Blacks. The research showed that seeing a Black President changed the way most respondents viewed the idea of a racial minority in such a position of power. It is not, however, clear whether the media effect was predominant since it was impossible to filter that amount of press in this particular experiment. Additionally, it was not clear how much exposure (both positive and negative) the research subjects were privy to in the months prior to the election, and in what for that exposure took place (e.g. venue, type, robustness, etc.)

Justification of Conclusions

For the type of study under consideration, this was professional, well presented, and statistically accurate. The data collected was as robust as possible for the intended study group, length of time, and particular research question.

The findings seemed logical and the follow up research questions regarding how perceptions of power may or may not affect the malleability of attitudes regarding race, perhaps gender, or other innate prejudice.

Strengths, Weaknesses and Possible Limitations-

The obvious limitation to this study was the relatively small sample size, the lack of a broad demographic spread, and the lack of longitudinal verification.

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By using one class from one college and of college students, the prior knowledge and bias quotient is not as robust as the general population. Still, since the researchers essentially did both a pre- and post-test, the measurement of bias was valid, if not the extrapolation.

The original research question, though, will the Obama election have a positive effect on racial bias or innate prejudice against Blacks is quite complicated from a social psychologist point-of-view. The answer is, and confirmed by the research, it depends on a number of external factors (age, demographics, geography, education, familiarity or personal relationships, and more). The general question of whether there will be a perceived positive effect is also linked to media coverage and what is perceived as being appropriate in attitude.

We also do not know if different racial stereotypes engender similar or dissimilar conclusions. We know from previous research that different ethnicities have different steortypes within the public's mind; since 9/11 Arab-Americans or those who adopt traditional Islamic dress; Latinos, Asian-Americans, etc. Not all of these biases are negative; some are neutral to positive. Would similar changes in positive perception also be engendered with greater familiarity for other ethnic types?

Potential Future Directions-

As the authors suggest, greater detail on how leadership traits are perceived vis-a-vis racial constructs. A more robust study, perhaps in combination with other venues, should be done to glean data from longitudinal and alternative demographic and psychographic variables.

REFERENCES CITED

Brigham, J.C. (1993). College students' racial attitudes. Journal of Applied Social….....

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