Investigating the effects of different evaluative conditioning procedures on modifying negative attitudes toward black faces

• Grant number: 21/04105-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2022
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Júlio César Coelho de Rose
• Grantee: Denise Aparecida Passarelli
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/06402-5 - Effects of the FAST flexibility training and evaluative conditioning on the racial bias reduction, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Racism can be understood as a set of negative attitudes towards individuals who have certain physical characteristics, such as skin color or hair texture. Attitudes are positive or negative evaluations about stimuli relevant. In the methodological field, the procedure of evaluative conditioning has been an effective tool for modifying evaluations. Therefore, the present study intends to explore the effects of three types of intervention, each involving a modality of evaluative conditioning, in the possible modification of negative attitudes towards black faces. Four experiments will be carried out, where we will select thirty-six participants, aged 8 and 10 years old, and twelve teenage students in the first grade of high school, who present negative evaluations about black faces in a pre-test. In the first experiment (n = 12), participants will receive discrimination training conditional to establish an equivalence relationship between black faces and a symbol positive. The second experiment (n = 12) intends to perform a procedure of direct pairing between black faces and positive stimuli. In the last two experiments (n = 12 each), black faces will be presented for 17 ms and paired with positive stimuli, being Experiment 3 carried out with adolescents and Experiment 4 with children. In each experiment, there will be a multiple probes design, and the measures on each probe will comprise: 1) an evaluation "Explicit" through Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM); 2) an "implicit" assessment through the Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST); 3) a preference test with toys that will include black and white dolls; 4) and, finally, an evaluation, employing matching-to-sample, the relationship between black and white faces and positive/negative symbols. The probes will take place in four moments: before any intervention; after the intervention m de with only half of the participants; after the intervention made with the other half of the participants, in addition to an evaluation for follow-up, performed six weeks after the end of the intervention. The findings will help elucidate the extent to which evaluative conditioning procedures can result in a reduction or elimination of negative biases to black faces. (AU)