David Amodio, PhD
Professor of Psychology, New York University &
University of Amsterdam
How do Prejudices Become Implicit? A Computational Learning Approach to Social Cognition and Bias
How do explicit stereotypes become internalized as implicit prejudice? For example, when Donald Trump refers to Mexicans as criminals and rapists, one may dismiss it as political rhetoric. Yet this information is nonetheless encoded in the mind, from where it may influence subsequent interactions with individual group members in a way that induces implicit bias. Dr. Amodio will describe research from his lab on how exposure to explicit semantic messages (e.g., stereotypes) can influence direct interactive social learning, via reward reinforcement, to produce implicit bias. He shows that, once formed, this bias is expressed in choice behavior and trust decisions, without participants’ apparent awareness and against their economic interests. He uses computational modeling to reveal the mechanisms underlying this effect, and further shows that this bias can be transmitted to unwitting observers who have no knowledge of group stereotypes. These findings support a novel account of implicit bias formation, based on an interactive memory systems model of social cognition, with implications for how bias is propagated and potentially reduced.

This free lecture is made possible by a generous endowment from Professor Allen L. Edwards.