1、As Erin White watched the election results head towards victory for Barack Obama, she felt a burden lifting from her shoulders. In that one second, it was a validation for my whole race, she recalls.Ive always been an achiever, says White, who is studying for an MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashv
2、ille, Tennessee. But there had always been these things in the back of my mind questioning whether I really can be who I want. It was like a shadow, following me around saying you can only go so far. Now its like a barrier has been let down.Whites experience is what many psychologists had expected -
3、 that Obama would prove to be a powerful role model for African Americans. Some hoped his rise to prominence would have a big impact on white Americans, too, challenging those who still harbour racist sentiments. The traits that characterise him are very contradictory to the racial stereotypes that
4、black people are aggressive and uneducated, says Ashby Plant of Florida State University. Hes very intelligent and eloquent.Sting in the tailAshby Plant is one of a number of psychologists who seized on Obamas candidacy to test hypotheses about the power of role models. Their work is already startin
5、g to reveal how the Obama effect is changing peoples views and behaviour. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not all good news: there is a sting in the tail of the Obama effect.But first the good news. Barack Obama really is a positive role model for African Americans, and he was making an impact even befo
6、re he got to the White House. Indeed, the Obama effect can be surprisingly immediate and powerful, as Ray Friedman of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues discovered.They tested four separate groups at four key stages of Obamas presidential campaign. Each group consisted of around 120 adults of
7、similar age and education, and the test assessed their language skills. At two of these stages, when Obamas success was less than certain, the tests showed a clear difference between the scores of the white and black participantsan average of 12.1 out of 20, compared to 8.8, for example. When the Ob
8、ama fever was at its height, however, the black participants performed much better. Those who had watched Obamas acceptance speech as the Democrats presidential candidate performed just as well, on average, as the white subjects.After his election victory, this was true of all the black participants
9、.Dramatic shiftWhat can explain this dramatic shift? At the start of the test, the participants had to declare their race and were told their results would be used to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This should have primed the subjects with stereotype threat an anxiety that their results will
10、 confirm negative stereotypes, which has been shown to damage the performance of African Americans.s successes seemed to act as a shield against this. We suspect they felt inspired and energised by his victory, so the stereotype threat wouldnt prove a distraction, says Friedman.Lingering racismIf th
11、e Obama effect is positive for African Americans, how is it affecting their white compatriots (同胞)? Is the experience of having a charismatic (有魅力的) black president modifying lingering racist attitudes? There is no easy way to measure racism directly; instead psychologists assess what is known as im
12、plicit bias, using a computer-based test that measures how quickly people associate positive and negative wordssuch as love or evilwith photos of black or white faces. A similar test can also measure how quickly subjects associate stereotypical traitssuch as athletic skills or mental abilitywith a p
13、articular group.In a study that will appear in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Plants team tested 229 students during the height of the Obama fever. They found that implicit bias has fallen by as much as 90% compared with the level found in a similar study in 2006. Thats an unusually
14、large drop, Plant says.While the team cant be sure their results are due solely to Obama, they also showed that those with the lowest bias were likely to subconsciously associate black skin colour with political words such as governmentpresident. This suggests that Obama was strongly on their mind,
15、says Plant.Drop in biasBrian Nosek of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who runs a website that measures implicit bias using similar test, has also observed a small drop in bias in the 700,000 visitors to the site since January 2007, which might be explained by Obamas rise to popularity
16、. However, his preliminary results suggest that change will be much slower coming than Plants results suggest.Talking honestlyPeople now have the opportunity of expressing support for Obama every day, says Daniel Effron at Stanford University in California. Our research arouses the concern that peop
17、le may now be more likely to raise negative views of African Americans. On the other hand, he says, it may just encourage people to talk more honestly about their feelings regarding race issues, which may not be such a bad thing.Another part of the study suggests far more is at stake than the mere e
18、xpression of views. The Obama effect may have a negative side. Just one week after Obama was elected president, participants were less ready to support policies designed to address racial inequality than they had been two weeks before the election.Huge obstaclesIt could, of course, also be that Obam
19、as success helps people to forget that a disproportionate number of black Americans still live in poverty and face huge obstacles when trying to overcome these circumstances. Barack Obamas family is such a salient (出色的) image, we generalise it and fail to see the larger picturethat theres injustice
20、in every aspect of American life, says Cheryl Kaiser of the University of Washington in Seattle. Those trying to address issues of racial inequality need to constantly remind people of the inequalities that still exist to counteract the Obamas effect, she says.Though Plants findings were more positi
21、ve, she too warns against thinking that racism and racial inequalities are no longer a problem. The last thing I want is for people to think everythings solved.These findings do not only apply to Obama, or even just to race. They should hold for any role model in any country. Theres no reason we wou
22、ldnt have seen the same effect on our views of women if Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin had been elected, says Effron. So the election of a female leader might have a downside for other women.Beyond raceWe also dont yet know how long the Obama effectboth its good side and its badwill last.Political s
23、entiment is notoriously changeable: What if things begin to go wrong for Obama, and his popularity slumps?And what if Americans become so familiar with having Obama as their president that they stop considering his race altogether? Over time he might become his own entity, says Plant. This might see
24、m like the ultimate defeat for racism, but ignoring the race of certain select individualsa phenomenon that psychologists call subtypingalso has an insidious (隐伏的) side. We think it happens to help people preserve their beliefs, so they can still hold on to the previous stereotypes. That could turn
25、out to be the cruellest of all the twists to the Obama effect.此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。1. How did Erin White feel upon seeing Barack Obamas victory in the election?A) Excited.B) Victorious.C) Anxious.D) Relieved.2. Before the election, Erin White has been haunted by the question of whether _.A) she could obta
26、in her MBA degreeB) she could go as far as she wanted in lifeC) she was overshadowed by her white peersD) she was really an achiever as a student3. What is the focus of Ashby Plants study?A) Racist sentiments in America.B) The power of role models.C) Personality traits of successful blacks.D) The du
27、al character of African Americans.4. In their experiments, Ray Friedman and his colleagues found that _.A) blacks and whites behaved differently during the electionB) whites attitude towards blacks has dramatically changedC) Obamas election has eliminated the prejudice against blacksD) Obamas succes
28、s impacted blacks performance in language tests5. What do Brian Noseks preliminary results suggest?A) The change in bias against blacks is slow in coming.B) Bias against blacks has experienced an unusual drop.C) Website visitors opinions are far from being reliable.s popularity may decline as time p
29、asses by.6. A negative side of the Obama effect is that _.A) more people have started to criticise President Obamas racial policiesB) relations between whites and African Americans may become tense againC) people are now less ready to support policies addressing racial inequalityD) white people are likely to become more critical of African Americans7. Cheryl Kaiser holds that people should be constantly reminded th
copyright@ 2008-2022 冰豆网网站版权所有
经营许可证编号:鄂ICP备2022015515号-1