The text describes a study finding that defendants’ appearance as more stereotypically African American was highly predictive of the men’s sentences when the victims were White. Describe the concept of implicit measures of prejudice. What role might implicit prejudice have played in this study? What other information would be helpful to gain a more detailed understanding of the study’s

Question

results?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
?Implicit measures are designed to demonstrate subconscious associations between concepts (such as race) and attitudes (such as good and bad). Related to racial prejudice, as the text notes, a White person might associate positive words, such as joy, love, and peace, with photographs of White faces and negative words, such as cancer, bomb, and devil, with photographs of Black faces.
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Implicit prejudice may have been present during the trials that form the basis of the research study but implicit prejudice alone could not have controlled the sentencing. Jurors observed the defendants, listened to testimony, and discussed the evidence over a period of time. There seems to have been ample opportunity to develop an opinion based on the evidence rather than initial responses.
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Regarding additional information, answers will vary. They could include considering whether there were geographic patterns to the results, trends over time, whether gender of the victim mattered, and so on.