> gg wrote: > But to say that people who look at any group of something, immediately > spot the oddball, but have no preference denies human nature. >
Here's a couple of studies that seem to show unconscious bias: ----------------- According to the new study led by Daniel Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, Major League Baseball umpires tend to call more strikes when the pitcher is of their same race; when they're not, umps call more balls. It doesn't happen all the time in about 1% of pitches thrown but that's still one pitch per game, and it could be the one that makes the difference. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1652338,00.html --- A coming paper by a University of Pennsylvania professor and a Cornell University graduate student says that, during the 13 seasons from 1991 through 2004, [NBA] white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/sports/basketball/02refs.html ------------------ Now granted you can quibble with the data, but I think the intuition is right. I'd also mention the concept of "consideration set". A poor kid - especially a poor black - could be forgiven for not even considering that she could become president after watching Bush, a bumbling howdy doody doofus, trip his way into the presidency. That kind of thing just reeks of rigged system. While this is purely anecdotal, I've got about 10 relatives & friends who are elementary teachers and they all agree that Obama's election has impacted their classes career consideration set. Kids are now VERY interested in being like Obama. Further, the same thing has happened with Sotomayor and with Hillary Clinton before her. At the end of the day humans have to actively WORK to be unbiased given a set of sameness no matter what the quality you pick is. And that's why programs like Affirmative Action work and are needed: it's the only way to make competency the sameness and therefore the basis of the discrimination. (capitalism and well-regulated markets do the same thing with greed: turn it into a force for wealth creation and the lifting of all boat ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:300585 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
