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Description
Multiple heuristics and schemas come together to create a particular implicit bias. The Bias of Crowds model argues that implicit bias flows through people like a wave across a sports stadium, rather than being a trait of an individual. Prejudice against African Americans may be related to other implicit associations about dark skin tone, weapons, and economic disparity that uniquely contribute to implicit racial bias. In addition, these heuristics can become more accessible in contexts characterized by economic disadvantage. While some combinations of skin tone bias, weapon bias, and economic disadvantage have been examined, these relations have not been considered simultaneously as both unique and interactive predictors of implicit, context-level racial bias. Using Census data, we computed poverty and unemployment differences between White Americans and African Americans as measures of economic disadvantage. Hypotheses one through three predict that dark skin bias (Skin Tone IAT), weapons association (Weapons IAT), and economic disadvantage (poverty and unemployment difference by race) each uniquely account for context-level racial bias (Race IAT). Hypotheses four and five predict that economic disadvantage (poverty or unemployment) moderates the relationship between the Race IAT and the other two IATs (Skin Tone IAT and Weapons IAT). Four regression models were performed such that poverty and unemployment difference models were run at the county and MSA level. Race bias was uniquely predicted by weapons bias, skin tone bias, and poverty disparity, but not unemployment disparity. The interaction between unemployment disparity and weapons bias was significant such that areas with higher unemployment disparity showed a stronger relationship between weapons bias and race bias. The interaction between poverty disparity and skin tone bias was significant such that areas with higher poverty disparity showed a weaker relationship between skin tone bias and race bias. This study supports context-level conceptualization of implicit bias and the ability to use distinct heuristics to predict racial bias of an area. While context-level studies are beginning to include system-level economic factors, this study emphasizes the importance of considering the unique and interactive effects of various heuristics and economic conditions to achieve a more holistic picture of implicit bias.
