America
Racial, gender bias results in more anti-social behaviour: Study
Washington, March 27
A new study carried out
by a team of US researchers has identified the psychological roots of
certain social deviant behaviours, pinpointing them as caused by
discrimination due to race, gender or belonging to a certain group.
In
the study published in the Personality and Psychology Bulletin, the
team of Stanford University researchers noted that anti-social behaviour
can stem from feelings of negative perception certain groups can
experience from an early age.
"We observed that students can feel
negative emotions if they think that others are going to prejudge them
based on their belonging to a certain race or gender," Rodolfo Cortes
Barragan, a psychology graduate student who co-authored the study, told
Xinhua news agency on Thursday,
Barragan and his colleagues
found that African American students worry much more than their
Caucasian peers about how their abilities would be judged by others and
whether they would be stereotyped, while women fear being pigeonholed at
work because of their gender. And if a person believes he is being
judged on pre-established negative feelings, his or her attitude becomes
anti-social.
Researchers recruited 1,280 participants from
across the US to join a series of online surveys about race, gender,
social status, perceptions and feelings. Almost all of the respondents
answered that they would far more likely engage in counterproductive and
deviant behaviour if they felt submitted to preconceived stereotypes.
African
American participants who imagined having a racist boss indicated that
their commitment to the company would plummet and they would see
themselves more inclined to waste their employer's supplies or badmouth
the company to others.
In another survey, the researchers asked
female participants to imagine that they faced the possibility of being
denied a promotion either because their boss did not think a woman was
suitable for a leadership position or because their personality was not
suitable for the job.
The results showed that the women were more
likely to say they would engage in counterproductive activities, such
as working incorrectly on purpose, starting rumours or ignoring
co-workers who need help.
"Race and gender are not things we can
control. Therefore, we feel frustrated when we are not judged based on
our personality or individual capabilities," Barragan said. "Roots of
anti-social behaviour often happen in this context and can be applied to
certain extremist behaviours."