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closeProposing another viewpoint
Posted by jborders on 21 Jul 2013 at 20:23 GMT
First let me say I thought this was a well done series of experiments and that every time I read through one experiment, I would think to myself "I wish they would also do this experiment ..." low and behold it was the next experiment listed. Well done!
My alternative viewpoint I wanted to get the author's response to is the following:
Perhaps it's more so a value system that led to the outcome of all of these experiments that were done. I say this because if you replace the conclusion that Americans feel that Blacks feel less pain than Whites, with "Americans value Blacks less than Whites", it would fit within a reasonable set of conclusions from the experiments. With this vertical value system it relates to other comparisons. For example, when we (Americans) hear of a bombing in Pakistan or genocide type activities in Darfur, or nuclear fallout in Japan, we spend a few minutes reading about it before we go about our daily activities, change the channel, etc. If any of these events were to occur on U.S. territory, there would be few cable news stations that would be on a 24 hr cycle of talking about such an event. I venture to guess that all backgrounds of Americans, from race to religion, would have more of an emotional impact with the proximity of such tragedies. Could a conclusion not be that we value Americans and American soil more than non-Americans and foreign territories? If this conclusion is accepted, does this not transcend to other differences such as race? Is it a logical assumption that if Whites don't value Blacks as much as Whites, it would explain the healthcare differences, the NFL injury differences,etc.? Could the experiments concerning pain toleration be more so it would take a lot higher infliction of pain for Whites to have any kind of emotional attachment to a Black person's experience? A mom could get physically ill by witnessing their children getting hurt, but less likely than if it were a child that isn't theirs. This seems to fit more into a value system, where certain groups are valued more than others.
I would love to get the authors' perspectives on this and if this viewpoint was considered.
Thank you,
Jay Borders
Kellogg School of Management - NU '08
RE: Proposing another viewpoint
SophieTrawalter replied to jborders on 11 Aug 2013 at 22:35 GMT
Thanks for your interest in our research! Just saw your post.
So yes, absolutely, we have considered this viewpoint. It’s certainly possible that folks who don’t value Black Americans’ lives as much as White Americans’ lives might assume that Blacks feel less pain than Whites because they’re less invested in thinking about and understanding Black people’s pain. That being said, some of our data aren’t quite consistent with this explanation. Namely, Black Americans also show the bias. Now, of course, some researchers might argue that, because of our pro-White culture, Black Americans also value White Americans more than Black Americans. The evidence, however, is mixed. It’s clearly a complicated matter. My hunch is that that’s not what’s going on in our data.
We’re currently conducting some follow-ups studies to more clearly demonstrate our claim that perceptions of hardship and naïve theories that hardship leads to toughness lead to this bias. Stay tuned.