Social status influence on implicit bias

Stereotypes help us quickly make sense of the world by categorizing people into groups and making assumptions about them based off this group membership. According to Social Role Theory, stereotypes form by observing gender disparities in social roles and are changed by encounters with individuals in counter-stereotypic positions. This study examined implicit pro-White and implicit pro-male bias in two experiments, by having participants interact with a White or Hispanic and male or female confederate, in either a superior (i.e., PhD student) or peer social status (i.e., undergraduate student). Additionally, first-year and long-term student cohorts provided a test of stereotype suppression due to prolonged exposure to counter-stereotypic exemplars frequent at a Hispanic-serving university environment. Implicit ethnic and gender biases of competence were measured through use of the IAT. The two experiments did not yield significant results, however based on reviewed literature of prior implicit bias studies, we believe that interacting with marginalized individuals in counter-stereotypic roles (i.e., superior position) and long-term environments should serve to manipulate implicit bias. Manipulation and methodological issues are discussed.