SCRATCH BENEATH THE SURFACE: HOW RACE AND AGE AFFECT IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS

Abstract

Recently, despite a reduction in individuals’ explicit racial biases, implicit racial biases are still robust. This is concerning, as implicit racial biases are linked to discriminatory behaviours. However, the literature has largely focused on the West, with implicit racial biases in Asia remaining understudied. Thus, the present study examined implicit racial biases in younger (age 18 to 26) versus older (age 45 to 64) Singaporean Chinese and Indian adults. 191 participants completed an Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998) on Qualtrics, where they associated positive and negative words with Chinese and Indian faces. As hypothesized, Chinese participants demonstrated greater own-race bias than Indian participants. However, this was qualified by their age group in an unexpected manner. Younger Chinese showed much greater own-race bias than younger Indians, while older Chinese only showed slightly more own-race bias than older Indians. These findings may be explained by threat perception and different opportunities for other-race interactions, suggesting a link between culture-specific factors and implicit racial bias. Overall, at least slight own-race bias was demonstrated by three out of the four groups studied, prompting further research on bias reduction interventions in Singapore.