A popular topic of discussion in psychology is whether “Intergroup Attitudes Influence Judgments of Speed” (Kenrick et al., 2016). An intergroup attitude is the evaluation of a group based on a positive or negative continuity. Psychologists got involved in a series of four experiments to test out the theory of whether intergroup attitudes are responsible for shaping the speed with which people of black color get perceived to be moving. The subjects of the experiment were middle-class citizens of both genders. When results about the speed of black faces moving towards their direction came back, they revealed that most whites saw a decrease in black people's pace. An immense intergroup nervousness got linked with judging black people to be moving more slowly than white faces. A second experiment revealed that this bias on black people's slow movement occurs for approaching objects alone. A third experiment showed that this movement bias occurs partly because of the anticipated time duration that each image was moving. Such a preference for black people's perceived slowing movement is steady with the extension of time and the constant slowing reported by individuals who had faced life-threatening situations.
During our regular daily routines, we share paths with strangers, and the way we react when passing each other determines whether we will interact with them and how we will interact with them. Most studies and experiments that most white people encounters with black people can feel life-threatening to white people. Stereotypes got attributed to the assumption by white people that black people are dangerous. Plenty of psychology works portray how the anticipated threat can infiltrate intuitive and valuable reactions during interracial encounters. Research shows that with a viewed perception of other people, their movement can judge their intentions. The study on this movement bias looks to understand the judgment of action during interracial encounters by factoring whether perceived interracial threats are responsible for shaping the speed with which white people judge black people.
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Further research on the influence that race has on a visual opinion shows the persuasive effects of the association of black people and the threat. Therefore, people who make quick conclusions about a target may, on several occasions, wrongly identify a harmless object as dangerous weapons. Another consistent factor associated with black people and threats is that white people tend to remember angry black faces more than neutral black faces. White people who are racially biased often tend to interpret any expression by a black person as anger. They also perceive neutral black faces as life-threatening than the neutral faces of white people.
The research brings out some important points about the bias of the movement of African Americans. First of all, the study tries to defend black people by pointing out that discrimination on black people's slowing tendency is a stereotype that exists among racially biased white people. There should be no perception that associates black people with life-threatening situations. The study further illustrates that the bias on black people slowing movement is a fake misconception that only exists when you concentrate on the approaching image and becomes nonexistent when you ignore the approaching face. Another strength of this study is the fact that it is trying hard not to be racially unjust. Experiments are conducted fairly between the black people and white people, and conclusions derived from the data collected. The study does not get conducted as a measure of racial bias, but its main motive is to show the effects of discomfort that some white people may experience being around people. An important point to note is that, just because the experiment found out that many white people experienced nervousness when approaching black people, it doesn't mean that all these white people are racists. Many reasons can explain their behavior. It could be that a lot of the white people had not been around black people before, and this could have been their first time interacting with black people. Another explanation is that they reacted like that because they did not know a better way to respond under the circumstances. Some acted that way out of fear that they did not know how to hold a conversation with black people hence avoided interacting with them because a wrong discussion could have easily seen the branded as racist.
This study has also got some limitations that fail to satisfy the theory entirely, one limit is that many innocent actions done by black people got misinterpreted as life-threatening by white people, which indicate racial profiling. Also, there were many cases of inaccurate identification by the eyewitnesses. It means that some of the data collected from some individuals were inaccurate.
However, this research's findings are significant because they will help fight against the racial bias towards black people by white people. White people who associated black people with danger and life-threatening situations now know that this bias only exists in their minds when they concentrate much on the black people approaching them and disappears when they focus on other things. White people can now change how they view and interact with blacks because black people's perception of slowing is a misconception that only exists in their minds.
I agree with the finding of this article that racial anxiety can temporarily change the perception of time, causing a bias on black people's movement. Time may tend to appear to go slow for white people who view black people approaching 'them as a life-threatening situation. However, as I have understood from this article, all that white people's anxiety goes away when the black people are walking away from them. I, therefore, offer you my kind regards for such an informative and conclusive article.
Reference
Kenrick, A. C., Sinclair, S., Richeson, J., Verosky, S. C., & Lun, J. (2016). Moving while Black: Intergroup attitudes influence judgments of speed. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 145 (2), 147-154. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000115
