Researchers Find Racial Bias In Virtual Worlds 592
schliz writes "Real-world behaviours and racial biases could carry forward into virtual worlds such as Second Life, social psychologists say. According to a study that was conducted in There.com, virtual world avatars respond to social cues in the same ways that people do in the real world. Users, who were unaware that they were part of a psychological study, were approached by a researcher's avatar for either a 'foot-in-the-door' (FITD) or 'door-in-the-face' (DITF) experiment. While results of the FITD experiment revealed no racial bias, the effect of the DITF technique was significantly reduced when the experimenter took the form of a dark-skinned avatar."
FITD vs DITF (Score:5, Interesting)
I had never heard of the Foot-In-The-Door experiment or Door-In-The-Face experiments before reading the article. Turns out they are actually very interesting and clever experiments which reveal behavioral tendencies the explanation of which is plausably related to how a person sees themselves (in the FITD case) or how they see others (in the DITF case).
In a nutshell, if someone makes a small request of you that you are likely to agree to, then you will be more likely to agree to a second, larger request, because you will have seen yourself as being helpful in complying with the first request and want to continue being helpful by complying with the second request.
And, if someone makes a large request of you, a request so onerous that most people would not accept it, then you will be more likely to agree to a smaller second request, to a greater extent than you would have had you not been asked the first, more onerous request. The explanation for this is that you are trying to reciprocate on the asker's reducing the size of their request by increasing your willingness to respond to a request beyond what your base level would otherwise be. It's a kind of a subconscious negotiation process that you are engaging in with someone else, basically meeting them halfway.
However, this second scenario is affected by how worthy you subconsciously believe that the other person is of this kind of negotiation (the first scenario is not because your response is affected by how you see yourself, not how you see the asker). And apparently, if you perceive the other person as being unworthy of this kind of negotiation, then you are less likely to meet them halfway and agree to the second request.
OK, so, this article basically says that darker-skinned avatars in virtual worlds essentially are less likely to be met halfway, ostensibly because, on average, they are perceived as being less important than lighter-skinned avatars.
I don't think it should come as a surprise to anyone that people's racial biases are carried through to a virtual world from the real world. So in a sense, this whole article, aside from being informative about some interesting psychological tests and their results, is kind of one big 'no duh'.
What would be really interesting to know is if, in these situations, there is a greater degree of this kind of bias in one race or socioeconomic class than another, or if it's universal.
Also, I would just like to point out that racial bias does not necessarily mean racism. I personally believe that racial bias is a natural part of the human psyche, and as long as it is recognized, and understood, and does not adversely disadvantage any particular group of people, should be accepted. But that's just me.
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:5, Interesting)
"Also, I would just like to point out that racial bias does not necessarily mean racism. I personally believe that racial bias is a natural part of the human psyche, and as long as it is recognized, and understood, and does not adversely disadvantage any particular group of people, should be accepted. But that's just me."
Well, it looks like you defined racism very properly. Being biased based on the color of skin is being racist. I do not judge about it, just saying that it is.
"I'm not racist, I'm racially biased!" is something most people would laugh at.
Not necessarily racism (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people would laugh at a lot of things that when thought about are true. People laughing is not a good test for truth, veracity, or factuality in nearly all cases.
The term 'racist" carries with it strong connotations of ignorance and bigotry, and it is unfair to call someone who it honestly attempting to be fair and equal with all people regardless of race racist if they still possess some small racial bias outside a strictly academic field.
data interesting, conclusions iffy (Score:5, Interesting)
You make a stupidly large request, followed by a reasonable one, to a stranger. There is a statistical difference in response depending on whether you are in a light or dark skinned avitar.
Researchers conclude that in first case it's because it's how you view yourself and second case it's how you view others and there is racial prejudice. Sounds like psychobabble to me.
Couldn't it be more like, "wow this stranger made a request that would take 2 hours of my time, then asked for 2 minutes... hmmm do I (consciously or subconsciously) find their avitar attractive enough to risk wasting time with a potential nutjob?"
TFA doesn't say who the target audience is, but I'm guessing mostly light skined avitar ppl who might just have a statistically higher attraction to ppl of lighter skins. What if they tried this test using ugly light skinned avitars and @#$%ing hot dark skinned avitars? I think they would have to rethink their conclusions.
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't agree that racial bias is a natural part of anything. If you dropped two people without any knowledge of how the world currently works in a room together and let them do whatever it is they're going to do, the last thing on their minds would be their skin color.
That might be true, but we weren't just dropped here, now were we? We have thousands of years of history, good and bad, and we have evolved highly complex societies.
What the OP was perhaps trying to say is that it is 100% human nature to help out your "own kind", whatever that might be. Short people stick up for other short people. Americans stick up for Americans. Christians stick up for Christians. Atheist stick up for Atheist. This goes all the way down to family and friends. It is no doubt that color/nationality/ethnicity would be a natural extension of this desire to help those like you.
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in the day I used a simple method of getting into clubs without challenge.
I wore black.
In the same style as the bouncers.
The basis: Since I was dressed the same as the bouncers they were more inclined to treat me in a positive way.
And it worked.
very very well.
When I didn't wear black I tended to be challenged much more etc.
Now people are hardwired to act like this. Someone who dresses the same, acts the same looks the same is more likely to be trusted than someone who looks or acts in a very different manner.
It's tribalism. Wanna bet you're immune?
As far as I'm concerned skin colour is no more important than hair colour.(damn dirty gingers!)Is reacting more positively to someone with brown hair than to someone with blond hair racist?
What about the User's Avatar? (Score:4, Interesting)
Isn't it obvious? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:4, Interesting)
So you shouldn't have to dye the colour of yoru skin, but it's okay to dye the colour of your hair to be more acceptable.
That's a double standard. Heck, in the winter, with a scarf and earmuffs the hair colour of a person is fair noticable than their skin colour.
Frankly, if I find a certain skin colour more attractive than other when seeking a mate, that is my personal perogative and that is not racism. I agree with the original parent. Racial bis is different than racism. I am Caucasian, maybe I find Asian or Aboriginal women more attractive than caucasuian women, am I racist against Caucasians? (Or is that all right because I'm not playign favourites to my own)?
The same is true for hair, if I find black hair more attractive than blond hair and actively try to avoid relationships with blondes that's not malicious. If I am avoiding a relationship with blondes because they are portrayed as stupid, that is bigotry and prejudice.
Bias? Probably (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not going into the all out racism thing, but as a World of Warcraft junky I have noticed that there is a certain bias. If you look statistically at the game, the two most common races are Night Elves and plain'ol humans. There aren't a lot of customizations in WoW, but one of them is skin color. I finally decided to make a human for whatever reason, and I decided to give her dark skin - not black as in African, but probably the sort of skin tone the average person in India would have.
Nearly all other characters in the game are white. And when I say nearly, I've seen two low level "banker toons" (also chose female avitars with white hair oddly enough), and I ran into one level 3 character with dark skin. I have yet to see anyone seriously level a character with dark skin, and I see hundreds of other human avitars in passing every day and not one of them has darker skin?
I generally mind my own business and I can't say race is much of a concern in my sphere of reality, however the fact that virtually no one in WoW chose a dark skin character really makes me wonder about a few things.
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:3, Interesting)
But is it wrong for me to not like someone because they appear different than me? Keeping in mind that I am talking not about the subjugation of a class of people, or violence or harassment, but rather the simple notion that there is nothing wrong with not liking someone.
More to the point of this experiment, a "black" avatar carries with it no other weight than the subject's own perceived bias. In other words, if a dark-skinned person wearing the latest urban fashion approached them, they would react the same. But if a dark-skinned person in an Armani suit speaking the Queen's English asked of them the same thing, I bet the outcome is different.
In other words, this experiment taps into our internal bias, but it does not project how we will react to an actual person.
Much more likely that it's a confirmation bias (Score:2, Interesting)
I doubt you were as successful as you remember, you're most likely experiencing a confirmation bias.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias [wikipedia.org]
Re:Bias? Probably (Score:1, Interesting)
It's worth pointing out that Warcraft is set in a nominally northern European environment. Subconsciously, it's a place where you'd expect to see white people.
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:5, Interesting)
Race isn't the only determinant either, though. Also consider that generalization is a common and useful human optimization for the problem of not knowing everyone in a large society well enough to judge them accurately on their individual merits.
I don't consider myself a racist because I don't believe that the color of a person's skin is a direct determinant of their behavior. But certainly I do make a lot of rational generalizations about the behaviors of groups of people to better inform my initial reactions to them, and some people like to cry "racism" when they see this behavior.
For example, I react very different when approached by a stranger on the street depending on the obvious clues about their social stature. If they're clearly middle or upper class based on the clothing, mannerisms, speech, and behavior cues, I'm more likely to be receptive to the approach. On the other hand if they're clearly a street bum, I'm a lot more wary and guarded, because that class of people are known to scam people like me on the street on a regular basis.
If the bum happens to be black, it's easy for someone (perhaps the bum himself) to accuse me of racism, when I'm not in fact racist.
Re:Why do they call you "Dirty Harry"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Bias? Probably (Score:2, Interesting)
that is probally just due to the fact that most players on your realm would be white. It's a representation of some kind after all.
Interesting would be to see what skincolor the humans on asian servers are
Re:Bias? Probably (Score:2, Interesting)
True, I considered that. However by looking at WoW demographics this is less than 1%. I'm pretty sure that more than 1% of people on the East Coast are "non white". But how many non white people play I wonder? For that matter if they don't play, why is that? Is it a cultural difference, or some other demographic thing at work? Or perhaps non white people generally do not play humans at all, but other races that are so radically different that skin tone doesn't even apply. It's actually an interesting topic to think about.
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:4, Interesting)
Couldn't agree more. For some time I had a lot of difficulty understanding this, and it bothered me in the head. I'd see a group of young black or Asian or whatever people and start to get scared. I now realise that the reason I'm scared of those poeple is, primarily at least, because they wear tracksuits and listen to gangsta rap in a not-at-all-ironic way, and generally the image they are trying to put across to the world is 'I want to stab you up'. This is easy to notice the first time you meet a few hippy/goth/whatever folks that just so happen to be 'ethnic', or whatever the word is today - it's easy not to notice at all.
And this is where racial bias comes in - if I saw some white kids that wanted my phone, I'd just think 'tw@'. If they are black, I think 'Tw@. Oh crap, I just looked at a black person and thought they were a tw@. I must be a racist! Racists are bad! Therefore I am bad!'.
Similarly, I generally have a pretty permanent scowl - I try working on it, but it just looks like I have a creepy smile instead. Anyways, this leads me to not want to look at minorities of any kind, because my generic expression is either one of seething hatred or psychosis, and I don't want them thinking they got a dirty look when they just got a look from someone dirty. It's a difficult balance to strike, because you should take people's differences and similarities into account, but constantly being aware of who I might offend makes for an uneasy bus ride as well as a subconscious desire not to be around 'minorities' because of the unease it instills in me by virtue of my liberal upbringing.
Re:FITD vs DITF (Score:3, Interesting)