This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes: How Science is Tackling Unconscious Bias

I received This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes: How Science is Tackling Unconscious Bias in mid-June, 2020. The weeks before (and since) had been filled with media coverage of fatal interactions between police and men and women of African American, and Canadian Indigenous backgrounds. How much of that has been the result of stereotyping? This book offers adolescent readers a highly readable account of the concept and history of stereotyping, research into how stereotypes generate behavioral responses, examples of ways in which stereotypes have been challenged, and finally, suggestions as to how readers can work at changing their own pre-conceptions, as well as those of others in society.

The book’s opening chapter, “Perception Deception”, defines the various terms which describe perception of and categorization of others: bias, discrimination, prejudice, and stereotype. The word “stereotype” took on its current meaning in the 1920’s when Walter Lippman, an American newspaper writer and philosopher, suggested that people created pictures or images in their mind when they read newspapers or listened to political discourse. Rather than judging the information in a purely objective fashion, their mental pictures influenced their judgment and caused them to create a stereotype based on race, ethnicity, or gender. Is stereotyping a result of nature or nurture? Is it part of our genetic inheritance, enabling us to recognize members of our own “tribe” or family, or is it the result of societal pressures to accept those who share attitudes and behavioral norms similar to ours?

In the nineteenth century, some scientists showed interest in skull sizes or such features as nose width or distance between the eyes. These “cranium crackpots” (p. 8) used such measurements to justify the superiority of upper-class white people, and, as a result, some scientists promulgated a special type of Darwinian selection: eugenics. As the nineteenth century wore on and the early decades of the 20th century dawned, eugenic thought became increasingly prevalent and increasingly more ugly, finding its worst expression during the rise of Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s promotion of the idea of an Aryan super-race and the elimination of those he saw as inferior found its ultimate expression in the concentration camps which systematically exterminated communities of Jews, the Roma people (i.e. “gypsies”), communists, gay people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and those suffering from mental and physical disabilities.

In the post-World War II era, researchers began to investigate how people’s brains could have been hijacked into accepting such extreme attitudes. One researcher studied the influence of authoritarian leaders whose polarized beliefs, rigid categorization of people, and valuing of obedience and rigid structure can lead to stereotyping amongst his or her followers. Stereotyping based on skin colour is well-known, and, in 2006, researchers at Tel Aviv University found that, depending upon the skin colour of the families or environment in which they live, babies may show a preference for that skin colour. However, babies living in an immigration centre, a multi-racial environment, showed no preference for white or black faces. “We’re not born with racial preferences or stereotypes, but we’re definitely born with the capacity to learn them. We absorb them from our environments long before we understand what we are doing.” (p. 19)

Chapter 2, “Secret Messages”, examines the ways in which our conscious and unconscious minds dissociate: the two different parts of the brain are sometimes in conflict, and we’re unaware of that mental tug-of-war. The 1960’s saw great protest against racial discrimination, and various research surveys indicated that many North Americans believed that they weren’t racists, even when their behaviours indicated otherwise. All of us are guilty of “impression management”, a term coined by Erving Goffman, a Canadian-born sociologist: we always try to put our best foot forward, concealing our flaws and accentuating our strengths. It can be unacceptable to admit to being racist, even if we are. Innate prejudices can also be at work in gender issues. A female researcher, Mahzarin Banaji, found that, while working on a draft of a psychological test in which the test subject had to sort and associate male or female names with work or career-related words, Banaji was quick to associate male names with work words but much slower to do so with female names. Why would a successful female academic have this problem? Even her brain made stereotypical associations of men with career success. Her insight into her own behaviour resulted in the development of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) which seeks to uncover biases hidden in people’s brains.

The pull quote heading this review began with the statement about the prevalence of police violence against American black males. Chapter 2’s discussions of “the bullet bias” and “trigger talk” (pp. 26-28) describes research which examines the degree to which police behaviour is driven by stereotypical assumptions. Police are professionals, trained to make rapid decisions under difficult circumstances, but they are also human beings. The stereotypes they hold, coupled with the very real pressures of their work, can lead them to make a decision that is fatal to an innocent human being. Stereotypes about race, gender, sexual orientation, physical attractiveness, and a person’s social class can all lead to decisions based on assumptions which are incorrect, unfair, and, in some cases, life-altering or deadly.

Although we often think that stereotyping is about judging “the other”, the chapter entitled “Me, Myself, and I” explores how we categorize ourselves in relation to others. The clothes we wear, the hair style we adopt, religious emblems we choose to display, and other personal accoutrements can signify our affiliation with a specific group. We choose to present ourselves in ways that correspond with a personal stereotype. “Dressing for success”, the wearing of jerseys proclaiming our loyalty to a sports team, souvenir t-shirts from a rock concert, all send a message, and, if we see someone who is expensively dressed, or, conversely, sloppily attired, we might make stereotypical assumptions about their intelligence, their social standing, or their ability to succeed at an endeavor. Those of us who have worked in schools know that male students who identify as “jocks” often have nothing but scorn for the unfashionably-dressed nerds who populate advanced math classes. Those guys (because another stereotype is at play here) couldn’t possibly care anything about sports, could they? Growing up within a racial or ethnic minority can expose a person to negative assumptions about one’s future goals and aspirations. “Stereotype threat” – being reminded of one’s social class, race, age, or gender, prior to undertaking a test of some ability – negatively impacts performance. “When you know you’re facing a negative stereotype, you cower a bit. . . . But the opposite is also true. People who fit best with the in-group feel most confident and perform extra-well.” (p. 44) However, researchers have found that stereotype threat can be overcome. If a person is aware of stereotype threat, it can actually be a positive motivator, and diversity can help, too: if a person from a minority finds him or herself with “people with all sorts of skin tones and gender identities, their differences become less important.” (p. 46)

“Change-Makers” underscores the reality that stereotypes can be challenged and changed. In 1918, the American magazine Ladies’ Home Journal actually advised mothers that, in matters of clothing, “the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl”, (p. 49) the rationale being that pink is a “stronger” colour. Two world wars made militaristic browns and greens more popular for little boys, and the colour choices reversed. Many social forces can bring about changes in long-held attitudes, and scientists are interested in researching why beliefs are maintained and how to make changes. Toys have an important role in child development, and researchers have found that gender stereotypes often determine the colour (pink and purple for girls) and content (in the case of certain Lego kits) of those childhood playthings, but a change of colour or content can engage boys with toys originally intended for girls. Popular media – whether kids’ cartoons, soaps or cultural events – have been created with the intention of challenging long-held beliefs. Regrettably, media coverage of events such as protest marches and acts of violence can also underscore stereotypical beliefs, undermining support for minority groups seeking social justice. Coverage of speeches and rallies staged by authoritarian politicians who rail against varying “out groups” demonstrates the ways in which negative messages utilize stereotypes to underscore their rhetoric.

Is “Rewiring the Mind” at all possible? That final chapter is the shortest in the book, underscoring that change may be possible, but it takes creative thinking. “We have absorbed our biases as babies and haven’t stopped to think about them since. Those of us who belong to majority groups sometimes accept our privileges without considering the people who are left behind.” (p. 61) Auditions for positions in a symphony orchestra can be held so that the candidate performs behind a screen and gender bias doesn’t influence hiring choices. In the world of medicine, hospital staff can be trained to recognize their biases and to undertake procedures which ensure that symptoms or patients aren’t overlooked, whether because of race, gender, social class, or their inability to advocate for themselves. There’s no quick fix, but researchers have found ways for people to work against stereotyping, and the chapter concludes with a list of activities to help rewire the mind. Ultimately, as with almost all behavioral change, a person must want to change his or her mind, to challenge stereotypes and attitudes with which they have been raised or to which they have been exposed, and to take positive action.

At a time when we are constantly reminded that “we are all in this together”, This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes is timely. Students from grades 7-12 will find it accessible, a mix of contemporary history, interesting anecdotes, and easily understood research findings. Adolescence is a time when students often question assumptions and beliefs with which they have been raised, and this book offers plenty to consider. A good acquisition for any middle school or high school library collection, the book also offers content useful to high school psychology and sociology classes. Teachers can also use this as a resource by which they can examine their own biases (there’s a web link to an online version of the Implicit Assumption Test) as well as to develop activities that enable students to think about theirs. Illustrated with simple colour graphics, the book ends with a short list of books for “Further Reading”, a chapter by-chapter list of “Selected Sources”, and “Index”. We may be hard-wired to stereotype others and ourselves, but our brains are capable of re-directing those neural connections. This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes helps to make those changes.