sciencetech-blog

comments

Some of the world's most troubling times, which have included periods of intense racism, have occurred during economic downturns.

And now a new study has found that people really do have a tendency to become more racist during a recession.

Researchers found that faces seem 'blacker' and have stronger racial features during an economic downturn, and this in turn increases the likelihood of discrimination.

A new study has found that people have a tendency to become more racist during a recession. In an experiment, participants judged faces have having a darker skin tone and stronger 'Afrocentric' features during a financial downturn (bottom left graph). When they were asked to distribute money, people allotted less money to a face with stronger 'Afrocentric' features in times of financial scarcity than to the same face in normal economic conditions (right)

The study by New York University claims that conditions of 'resource scarcity' alter people's perception of race.

Their work follows a study last year, which suggested racism is on the rise in the UK, fuelled by financial strife.

In four experiments, involving 285 non-black Americans, scientists David Amodio and Amy Krosch found people see faces different during an economic downturn.

'It's well known socioeconomic disparities between white Americans and racial minorities expand dramatically under conditions of economic scarcity,' Professor Amodio said.

'Our findings indicate scarcity changes the way people visually perceive another person's race - and this perceptual distortion can contribute to disparities.'

In the first experiment, participants were shown pictures of faces which varied along a continuum from black to white, before being asked to state whether the face in the image was black or white.  

Individuals who held strong beliefs that white people suffer financially when black people make economic gains were more likely to perceive mixed-race faces as black, than individuals without such beliefs.

The study by New York University claims that conditions of 'resource scarcity' alter people's perception of race. Here, graffiti is shown on the side of a derelict warehouse in Detroit, which has been largely distressed since the collapse of the motor industry

In the second experiment, the concept of economic scarcity was unconsciously introduced with subliminal messages like 'scarce', 'sparse' and 'limited'. The scientists found that more people were likely to perceive mixed-race face images as black than when economic scarcity was not introduced.

Krosch said: 'People typically assume what they see is an accurate representation of the world so if their initial perceptions of race are actually distorted by economic factors people may not even realise the potential for bias.'

Those who more strongly believed in resource competition between both racial types had a lower threshold for identifying mixed-race faces as black, than did subjects who did not hold these views.

People under financial strain generated images of faces with darker skin and stronger 'Afrocentric' features than people without tight budgets, in the third experiment.

And in the final test, participants allocated less money to faces that were perceived as 'more black' when money was scarce.

According to the study, which is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 'the results suggest that economic scarcity may alter individuals' visual perception of black Americans, likely eliciting increased discrimination and that this process may worsen socioeconomic disparities.'

Professor Amodio said: 'Together our results provide strong converging evidence for the role of perceptual biases as a mechanism through which economic scarcity enhances discrimination and contributes to racial disparities.'

A recent international study found that white people develop 'passive tolerance' of minorities in mixed areas, such as central London (pictured) even if they have no direct contact with them