Karmali Francine, Kawakami Kerry, Page-Gould Elizabeth
Department of Psychology, York University.
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2017 Aug;146(8):1073-1085. doi: 10.1037/xge0000304. Epub 2017 Apr 3.
Responses to outgroup racism can have serious implications for the perpetuation of bias, yet research examining this process is rare. The present research investigated self-reported, physiological, and cognitive responses among "experiencers" who witnessed and "forecasters" who imagined a racist comment targeting an outgroup member. Although previous research indicates that experiencers self-reported less distress and chose a racist partner more often than forecasters, the present results explored the possibility that experiencers may actually be distressed in such situation but regulate their initial affective reactions. The results from Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants in both roles showed (a) no activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal stress axis (decreased cortisol) and (b) activation of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system (increased skin conductance). However, experiencers but not forecasters displayed a physiological profile indicative of an orienting response (decreased heart rate and increased skin conductance) rather than a defensive response (increased heart rate and increased skin conductance). Furthermore, the results from Experiment 2 provided additional evidence that experiencers are not distressed or regulating their emotional responses. In particular, experiencers showed less cognitive impairment on a Stroop task than forecasters. Together these findings indicate that when people actually encounter outgroup bias, they respond with apathy and do not censure the racist. (PsycINFO Database Record
对外群体种族主义的反应可能会对偏见的持续存在产生严重影响，但研究这一过程的研究却很少见。本研究调查了目睹种族主义言论针对外群体成员的“亲历者”和想象此类言论的“预测者”的自我报告、生理和认知反应。尽管先前的研究表明，亲历者自我报告的痛苦较少，并且比预测者更常选择种族主义伴侣，但本研究结果探讨了亲历者在这种情况下实际上可能感到痛苦但调节其初始情感反应的可能性。实验1的结果表明，两种角色的参与者都表现出：（a）下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺应激轴未激活（皮质醇降低），以及（b）交感自主神经系统激活（皮肤电导率增加）。然而，亲历者而非预测者表现出一种指示定向反应（心率降低和皮肤电导率增加）而非防御反应（心率增加和皮肤电导率增加）的生理特征。此外，实验2的结果提供了额外证据，表明亲历者并未感到痛苦或调节他们的情绪反应。具体而言，在斯特鲁普任务中，亲历者的认知损伤比预测者少。这些研究结果共同表明，当人们实际遇到外群体偏见时，他们会冷漠应对，不会谴责种族主义者。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
