Posted on 01/30/2006 9:33:42 AM PST by SteveMcKing
Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 30, 2006
...
"In my own family, for example, there are stark differences, not just of opinion but very profound differences in how we view the world," said Brenda Major, a psychologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, which had a conference last week that showcased several provocative psychological studies about the nature of political belief.
...
Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative information about various candidates. Both groups were quick to spot inconsistency and hypocrisy -- but only in candidates they opposed.
...
The psychologist observed that the way these subjects dealt with unwelcome information had curious parallels with drug addiction as addicts also reward themselves for wrong-headed behavior.
...
For their study, Nosek, Banaji and social psychologist Erik Thompson culled self-acknowledged views about blacks from nearly 130,000 whites, who volunteered online to participate in a widely used test of racial bias that measures the speed of people's associations between black or white faces and positive or negative words. The researchers examined correlations between explicit and implicit attitudes and voting behavior in all 435 congressional districts.
...
The analysis found that substantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces -- evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"Umm... Where are the black people?"
Reminds me of the time I was smitten with a bookish, highly intelligent and fun woman who was rather to the left, politically ... she insisted that I go to a speaking engagement by an author she loved, who proceeded to go on and on at length about how important it was to break down racial barriers and to go out and educate the world about the evils of segregation. The entirely white, liberal audience nodded sagely and practically patted themselves on the back for their enlightenment, and didn't understand at all why I found them amusing.
Rush talking about this now....
Why not? Most of they publish is tripe.
You mean, this study, that study and the other study? Good luck. trying to get them. If you do, you'll be looking at the equivalent of analyzing patterns in concrete texture, that show evidence of bias in Bush backers. Even though you could prove it, the morons won't believe you, because "you're in denial".
"And the man who worked hard to bring you this story, Shankar Vedantam
of the Washington Post... "
Well, at least he should know a caste system when he sees it.
And now is helping to build a secular caste system in which anyone
who isn't as enlightened as these academics is now to be an "untouchable"...
This seems like complete BS--pseudoscience at its worst. How this can possibly be validated is beyond me, and any "test" that can't be validated independently is garbage. Another tipoff to the pseudoscientific nature of the exercise--when my daughter raised these objections in class, her teacher accused her of "denying her biases." Such responses are common in pseudosciences--note that Marxists claimed that critics were just reflecting latent class biases, and Freudians attacked critics as being prisoners of an unconscious mind that couldn't accept the truth. These are non-refutable "theories" and hence unscientific.
True.. but The Truth is in the details NOT mentioned..
Bush backers are more biased against WHITES AS WELL...
Liberals are not only black.. but white, women, Queers, Oprahs Harpo'crites, and even latins.. Some Bush backers are even biased against Bush and other big government republicans..
Evidence that people are more inclined to belive their lying eyes than all your P.C. brainwashing.
Study comes out saying that blacks commit more crime. The left calls it racist, sexist, homophobic and tells us we shouldn't pay attention to it.
Study comes out saying that whites are racist, sexist and homophobic. The left touts it as showing there is a problem in our society.
The only difference between these two studies is the skin colors involved. Sounds like left wing racism to me...
That's why the Kennedys,Clintons,Kerrys,etc,choose to live in Chappaqua,Hyannisport and Beacon Hill and also why they made sure their kids never set foot in a *public* school.
Brilliant point!
Can't argue with such solid scientific criteria.
"Or he believed they were qualified for the job."
No doubt he did... particulary in Condoleeza Rice's case. But if you think their race had nothing to do with most of their nominations or appointments, I think that's politically naive.
[MB> I can count on my fingers and toes the number of blacks enmeshed in "black" culture that I respect. Let me tell a related tale...
[B> I am not sure what you mean by being enmeshed in "black" culture. I am proud of my heritage and history, love black music, people, athletes, soul food,black literature and poetry ....I consider myself a lover of black culture. That being said I vote Republican, 2nd ammendment rights, I'm pro-life, against same-sex-marriage. Faithfully married, military wife, teach Sunday school. I'm as conservative as I can be being black. There are probably tons of black folk that you could respect if you got to know them better. We are just like you.
Thank you for your family's dedication to serving our country!
By "black culture" I'm referring to modern liberal American, black culture. Of course this is not limited to blacks at all, but blacks have seemed to followed their "leaders" into that abyss more than other cultures, percentage wise. Basically it's the combination of someone of African decent who has fully submersed into the pool of modern liberalism & cultural junk-food. There is so little visible traditional black culture left in America. Traditional black culture is being lost at a death-spiral rate, as is traditional American culture. It's been lost to the democrats (socialists today) and the mass marketers, not to mention the demographics of an immigrant invasion. Traditional conservative blacks like Bill Cosby, who has been my hero since 1964, are attacked as all manner of vile thing by today's "black" culture. Today, conservative Christians are routinely labeled as extremists and are marginalized. If my neighbor is a black man who espouses traditional American values, then I welcome him as if he's my long lost brother. Our neighborhoods need more men like him, and more women like his wife, and more kids like his kids.
When I see someone who has rejected traditional human rules of personal responsibility, and ascribes to an institutionalized victimhood for a group (any group), I am repulsed. And when I'm repulsed, that provides the negative feedback into the vicious cycle that perpetuates the belief within that group that I am indeed the source of their problem. That is the link of flawed-logic to the story about my step-dad's parishioner who provided such a clear look at how this sort of thing feeds upon itself.
And just in case it makes any difference, to let you know where I'm coming from, I have a personal stake in the survival of traditional black culture. I literally and honestly do not care what color a person's skin is. My legally adopted daughter (teenager now) is black, and I go for many days or weeks before I remember even in passing that she's "black" (quoted to symbolize all of the connotations that society has applied to the word). She's my daughter, God himself has charged me with her care, and It's just not important to me what color her skin is. Except that now she's a teenager and is occasionally experimenting with makeup when she has sleepovers, which makes me anxious. But that's for another thread. :)
I am significantly biased against liberalism. And I'm very biased against what I see on TV, presented as popular culture, because everybody is a victim today.... except for me. And it's a rarity for me to find a good reason to respect any group who publishes material where I can't reverse the words "Black & White" in a story without creating a racist out of someone. I carry a severe bias against it if the story can't be made colorblind, which is what Dr. King believed in, and what our society should be.
LOL!
This is defined in the dictionary under "FRAUD', subsecton "Self-selected sample"...
"culled self-acknowledged views about blacks from nearly 130,000 whites, who volunteered online to participate in a widely used test of racial bias"
So they are calling this a valid study? They used people who volunteered online? Then they concluded that among those who lived in districts that GWB carried, there were more racists, therefore Republicans have a built in bias?
They must be using the Bill O'Wrongly process of logic.
Indeed my goal was to lay focus on the kind of human beings who produce these studies - but if the study itself is lame or invalid, then all the more poignant.
Maybe getting a tin foil hat is not so crazy or paranoid after all.
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