Sunday, May 31, 2015

Paper Clip: Sleeping off racial and gender biases - The Indian Express

SLEEPING OFF RACIAL AND GENDER BIASES
Published in Science, May 29, 2015


Authors: Xiaoqing Hu, James W Antony and Others, Northwestern University, US

Preconceptions about other people can influence behaviour. The tendency to endorse racist or sexist attitudes explicitly has decreased, but social biases may play out implicitly or unconsciously, regardless of intentions or efforts to avoid bias. Participants processed counter-stereotype information paired with one sound for each type of bias.

During slow-wave sleep later, one sound was unobtrusively presented to each participant, repeatedly, to reactivate one type of training. Corresponding bias reductions were fortified in comparison with the social bias not externally reactivated. A week later, the advantage stayed. Memory reactivation during sleep tended to enhance counter-stereotype training. Maintaining bias reduction seemed sleep-dependent.

(ADAPTED FROM ABSTRACT)


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