Page 75 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Invisibility of Unintentional Biases 49

In a study of 50 certified sworn law - enforcement officers in the state of

Florida, investigators examined decisions to shoot or not to shoot Black and
White criminal suspects in a computer simulation (Plant & Peruche, 2005).
Participants were instructed that they would see pictures of suspects holding
either a gun or a neutral object like a wallet or cell phone. In essence, the fi ndings

revealed that officers were more likely to shoot unarmed Black suspects than
unarmed White ones. In another study on hidden biases, investigators examined

the influence of Afrocentric facial features in criminal sentencing (Blair, Judd,
& Chapleau, 2004). A random sampling of inmate records indicated that (a)
Black and White inmates with similar criminal records were given roughly
equivalent sentences, but (b) within each group, those with more Afrocentric
features received harsher sentences than those with lesser Afrocentric features.

In both studies, it appears that neither officers nor juries/judges were consciously
aware that they responded differently to race.
Invisible or hidden biases from the standpoint of well - intentioned White
subjects were also demonstrated in a study of “ failure to help ” (Dovidio et al.,
2002). The investigators reasoned that unintentional racists are less likely to
discriminate against people of color when appropriate behavior (nonracist)
is clearly defined. However, when situations are ambiguous, and other reasons

can be given for discriminatory actions, biases will be more likely to appear.
To test their theory of aversive racism, two experimental conditions were
created: (1) one in which subjects believed they were the only witnesses to
an emergency situation and (2) one in which witnesses believed others also
witnessed the situation. The emergency situation varied with the race of the
injured motorist: Black or White in a disabled car. Results revealed that White
bystanders offered help equally (over 80% of the time) whether the motorist
was White or Black when they believed they were the only ones who witnessed
the incident. However, in the second condition (believing others also saw the
motorist) the Black victim was helped half as often as the White victim (38%
versus 75%)!
How do we make sense of these findings? The researchers speculate that

people with unconscious biases are less likely to respond in a discriminatory
fashion in situations where right and wrong, and appropriate or inappropriate
behaviors are clear and unambiguous. As the only person witnessing the dis-
tress, failing to help would constitute racial bias that challenges the self - image
of the White bystander as a nonracist. This is far different from our earlier fi nd-
ings that overt and conscious racists are more likely to discriminate when ano-
nymity exists (Sue & Capodilupo, 2008). However, in a situation that is fi lled

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