In “Is Race Reflected By Your Outfit?” Pamela Paul talks about a study done by researchers from Tufts, Stanford and the UC Irvine. Participants were asked to determine the race of different people in pictures. Some were well-dressed, pictured wearing business suits, and some were poorly-dressed, pictured wearing a janitor’s outfit, and all were within 13 shades of skin tone color. The question at hand here is the title of the article, “Is race reflected by your outfit?”
According to the study, “Yes, race is reflected by your outfit”. The researchers used mouse-tracking analysis where they measured the speed and position of the mouse when a participant used it. Whenever a white man was shown wearing a suit, the participant immediately the “white” button but when the same man was shown wearing a janitor’s outfit, the participant hesitated to click “white” and even hovered over the “black” button.
I think it is outrageous that people think this way and associate people of darker shades with lower-ranked jobs. Most people think that way though, and this experiment brings to light what people are secretly thinking but don’t say out loud. This study is interesting because even though the researchers aren’t actually reading the participant’s mind, the mouse-tracking analysis shows the thought process of these people.
Paul mentions how most of the participants were “overwhelmingly white” but hardly any African-Americans or Hispanics agreed to participate. In this experiment, there is a big emphasis on race and how different races are viewed in society, which is a touchy subject, but even though Paul is not a reviewer, she keeps a objective tone in this article. If i were the one writing this article, I don’t think I’d be able to keep the objective tone Paul has.
This is an interesting study, that is well conducted. Paul did a good job of tracking the mouse’s motion to see how people are thinking, however, aren’t there flaws with doing so as well? I know I occasionally shift my mouse when I am typing or when I am thinking about an answer. Nonetheless I agree with you on the matter of keeping an objective tone. Race can be a touchy subject sometimes and I would find it difficult to hold an objective tone throughout a conversation or such.
I think this study is shocking. It does make me wonder though about the validity of an experiment such as this one. With a topic as controversial as race, it may be difficult to do a reliable study with a good set of participants. As mentioned, most of the participants were “overwhelmingly white.” I wonder how much of an impact this had on the study.
I thought this was a very interesting study. I was surprised to hear that most of the participants were white and none were black or hispanic and only one person was biracial. I feel with this type of study the amount of people in every race should be equal so that there is some sort of system to compare them by. Since almost all of the participants were white, the results basically depict the stereotypes that whites have of black people. While this study is controversial, it reflect the times that we live in.
This is a significant study that shows that a lot of societies biased and somewhat racist views are still intact. I agree with you, it is quite outrageous that the darker the color of your skin the more lower ranking job you are associated with. Devon makes a good point – the participants should be equally spread out amongst different races. However, since this study is mostly of white participants, it might depict a somewhat unconscious superiority that they still maintain.
WOW! This is incredibly interesting! I think that surveys are usually inaccurate because people sometimes choose the answers that they think others would choose but the mouse tracking software really changes that! I also think it is obscene how people can judge people and their race by what they wear but it is something that is inevitable, like racism.
Isn’t a MAJOR concern of psychological experiments the ethical behavior that goes along with it? More specifically the APA (American Psychological Association) currently holds that test subjects should have a right to agree or disagree to an experiment it seems to me that the subjects didn’t have a say in this experiment?