More Likely to Shoot Innocent People

In a recent piece by Shannon Proudfoot, the “turban effect” is explained as an implicit, prejudicial bias existing in individuals without their knowledge.

The study was headed by social psychologist Christian Unkelbach of the University of Heidelberg. According to the report,

People were much more likely to shoot Muslim-looking characters — men or women — even if they were carrying an innocent item instead of a weapon.

The stereotypical cue used to identify people of the Islamic faith in this research paradigm was the Muslim turban. The results showed that:

Whether they’re holding a steel coffee mug or a gun, people are just more likely to shoot at someone who is wearing a turban.

The study confirmed that people generally do not realize that they hold these inherent biases. When debriefed to the purpose of the study participants insisted they were not prejudice.

Typical of the modern form of racism prevalent in our society participants denied any racially motivated, unfair distinction. What was particularly interesting was that professor Unkelbach largely blames one-sided media portrayals for this bias.

This type of finding is not something new.

Implicit Bias Recognition Towards Minorities

Although very few studies have used implicit bias recognition tasks to affirm Islamophobic sentiment in select populations, individuals harbouring implicit biases towards minorities, especially blacks, is well documented. One of the heavily supported theories of this advanced form of subtle and nonconscious racism can be attributed to the work Samuel Gaertner and Jack Dovidio in their 1986 publication The Aversive Form of Racism.

Unlike old-fashion blatant racism and bigotry, characterized by overt forms of discrimination such as cross burnings of the KKK, or discriminatory policies forcing blacks to sit at the back of the bus, aversive racism is more subtle and some might even say insidious.

Aversive racists are on the whole well-intentioned people who typically:

1. avoid acting in a racist manner
2. support public policies that promote racial equality
3. sympathize with victims of past injustice
4. identify with liberal political agendas
5. possess strong egalitarian values
6. regard themselves as non-prejudiced.

However, aversive racists almost unavoidably possess negative feelings and emotions about African-Americans and other minority groups. According to Dovidio and Gaertner (1998), these feelings are thought to be based on factors such as:

• a) socialization experiences in local cultures with racist traditions and;
• b) the ongoing competition between social groups in a world with little resources.

What underlies this specific form of racism is that aversive racists possess strong egalitarian values. When a situation arises where a discriminatory act, decision, policy or statement would be obvious to oneself and others an aversive racist will not discriminate.

On the other hand, in a similar situation where the discriminatory act would be ambiguous or where it could be strongly justified, aversive racists’ harboured feelings towards the targeted group will be realized.

Moreover, distinctions have been drawn between people holding different political views. For example, it has been demonstrated that when conservatives are placed in a situation where cues for helping people were strong but the need to conceal one’s bias was at a minimal, conservatives favoured a European American over an African American. Whereas in the same situation, liberals helped both groups about equally (Gaertner, 1973).

Linking Media and Aversive Racism

The link between the media and aversive racism or nonconscious and latent racism has also been documented.

The term democratic racism coined by Frances and Tator (1994) stems from much of the psychological theories with more of an emphasis on ideological perspectives in a social and institutional framework. Accordingly, democratic racism is defined as:

…An ideology which permits and sustains the ability to justify maintaining two apparently conflicting values. One set of values consists of a commitment to a democratic society motivated by egalitarian values of fairness, justice and equality. Conflicting with these liberal values are attitudes and behaviours which include negative feelings about people of colour and which carry the potential for differential treatment or discrimination against them. In its simplist form, democratic racism is an ideology that reduces the conflict between egalitarian and non-egalitarian values.

It is Frances and Tator’s contention that democratic racism is part of the discourse of dominance that is used to establish, reinforce, and sustain racism in society, including the media.

Specifically, it is their view that the flexible meanings of tolerance, equality, and freedom of expression - central concepts of fundamental liberalism - often become the language and conceptual framework through which intolerance and exclusion are enabled, reinforced, defined and defended.

For example, liberal principles that include the primacy of individual rights over collective rights, freedom of expression, equal opportunity and tolerance have been used against marginalized and excluded groups. This is due to the paradox that liberalism is both egalitarian and inegalitarian.

Need for More Studies Making Direct Links

As previously noted, there is an absence of studies making direct psychological links to Islamophobic cognitions.

This is true in spite the over-abundance of research laying the groundwork for the notion that implicit discriminatory ideology is, at times, pervading our institutions through the minds of the advantageously situated and elite.

Hopefully findings like the “turban effect”, that make inextricable links between prejudicial biases and Islamophobia, will add to the social scientific findings which demonstrate that Islamophobia is a real and pressing problem in society and throughout the media.