Levinson, Cai and Young (2010)

aim

to investigate whether ppl hold implicit associations between African Americans and criminal guilt

method

67 undergraduate & graduate students from the University of Hawaii

all participants were eligible for jury duty

procedure

researchers designed a “Black/White, Guilty/Not Guilty” IAT

participants completed computer-based measures - the IAT (implicit association test), feeling thermometers & a robbery evidence evaluation task

the robbery evidence evaluation task presented participants with story of armed robbery

they then saw crime scene photos

were primed with a picture of either a dark-skinned perpetrator or a light-skinned perpetrator

for each piece of evidence, participants had to decide if the evidence indicated the perpetrator was guilty or not guilty

results

participants held strong implicit associations between “Black” & “Guilty” (compared to “White” & “Guilty”)

scores of IAT negatively correlated with scores on feeling thermometer

• participants who reported feeling warmly towards African Americans were also more likely to show an implicit “Guilty” bias towards them

conclusion

implicit attitudes of race & guilt may be different from explicit attitudes

strengths

participants eligible for jury duty - brains were developed, so they could form coherent decisions

relatively easily testable

provides evidence for implicit associations

limitations

participants only from University of Hawaii - not very generalizable

not much investigation into why exactly participants had implicit associations between “Black” & “Guilty”

• hv they seen lots of tv shows where African Americans commit crimes

• do they hv personal experience with seeing African Americans commit crimes?

implications + applications

implicit biases in justice system - could mean that ppl are charged simply because of the color of their skin