Department of Cognitive Science, Occidental College, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Department of Gender Studies and Affiliated Faculty, American Indian Studies Center and Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Feb 24;15(2):e0228784. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228784. eCollection 2020.
Given the problematic depictions of Native Americans and the pervasive cultural biases that exist, we sought to understand how contemporary educational practices in museums might encourage viewers to consider the context of their preconceptions rather than passively absorb conventional representations. In this two-part study, we tested whether and how viewers (mis)perceptions and interpretations of Native peoples might be influenced by encouraging empathy-specifically by taking the perspective of a Native individual depicted in a photograph they are visually analyzing. We randomly assigned participants in a lab setting (N = 120) and in a museum setting (N = 75) to one of three conditions (perspective-taking, stereotype-suppression, or control), and examined eye movements, self-reports, and verbal and written responses while participants viewed portrait photographs of American Indians. Notably, perspective-taking led viewers to interpret American Indians in a more emotional, empathetic, and human-centered manner than in control and suppression conditions. This was reflected in eye movements such that control and suppression participants attended to decorative features (e.g. jewelry) more than to the eyes of the depicted individual, whereas perspective-takers' attention was more balanced. Similarly, perspective-takers used more empathetic and emotion-related language, whereas participants in control and suppression groups used more "objective" visually-descriptive language. Crucially, regardless of condition, cultural biases were stubbornly resistant to change and, in some cases, appeared even more frequently for participants adopting others' perspectives. We argue that despite the positive outcomes associated with perspective-taking, the continued presence of cultural biases across conditions demonstrates that cultural competency-based interventions must be more complex and culturally-specific.
鉴于对美洲原住民的描绘存在问题，以及普遍存在的文化偏见，我们试图了解当代博物馆教育实践如何鼓励观众考虑自己的先入之见的背景，而不是被动地接受传统的表现形式。在这项由两部分组成的研究中，我们测试了观众（错误）的看法和对美洲原住民的理解是否以及如何受到鼓励同理心的影响——具体来说，就是通过从照片中描绘的一个美洲原住民的角度来看待他们正在进行视觉分析的照片。我们在实验室环境（N=120）和博物馆环境（N=75）中随机分配参与者到三个条件之一（换位思考、刻板印象抑制或对照组），并在参与者观看美洲印第安人肖像照片时检查眼动、自我报告以及口头和书面反应。值得注意的是，换位思考使观众以更情绪化、更具同理心和以人为中心的方式来理解美洲印第安人，而不是在对照组和抑制组中。这反映在眼动上，即对照组和抑制组的参与者更关注装饰性特征（如珠宝），而不是所描绘个体的眼睛，而换位思考者的注意力则更加平衡。同样，换位思考者使用更多的同理心和与情感相关的语言，而对照组和抑制组的参与者则使用更多的“客观”视觉描述性语言。至关重要的是，无论条件如何，文化偏见都顽固地难以改变，在某些情况下，采用他人观点的参与者甚至更为常见。我们认为，尽管换位思考带来了积极的结果，但在所有条件下仍然存在文化偏见，这表明基于文化能力的干预措施必须更加复杂和具有文化特异性。
