Trayvon Martin’s Psychological Killer: Why We See Guns That Aren’t There

Melanie Tannenbaum writes over at SciAm about the psychology behind split-second decisions like the one George Zimmerman made when he shot Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman did not make a split-second decision, that was the wrong wording, and a bad lede into the study, which is about split-second reactions.

A 2002 study put college students in a similar situation and measured their ability to make snap judgements of whether to shoot:

Groups of college students were told that a series of people would come on the screen in front of them and would either be holding a gun or a neutral object, like a wallet, aluminum can, or cell phone. If the participants correctly shot an armed target, they would receive 10 points; if they correctly did not shoot an unarmed target, they would receive 5 points. Shooting an unarmed target deducted 20 points, and not shooting an armed target – the most potentially dangerous outcome for a real police officer on the streets – would result in the harshest penalty of all, a 40-point deduction.

As each target appeared on screen, participants had to decide as quickly as possible if the target was holding a gun or a harmless object, and subsequently whether to shoot or not shoot by pushing a “shoot” or “don’t shoot” button. Unbeknownst to participants, the researchers had manipulated one critical feature of the targets – some of the targets were White and some were Black.

You can probably guess what the results were, but the psychology might surprise you. It turns out that a person does not have to carry overt racist feelings to make a mistake in this situation. The results showed that merely being aware of racial prejudice spawned shooter bias, no matter if the shooter’s perspective on the prejudice was positive or negative.

By all indications, George Zimmerman is an overtly racist man, and that lies at the heart of this tragedy. But this study raises an important point: One does not have to be overtly racist to make the same mistake. Check out Melanie’s full post and see what you think.

Edit: Like I anticipated, some people aren’t getting the point of this article. George Zimmerman is a racist who murdered an unarmed black boy. This is a psychological study that says that the same thing can happen, in a simulation, without overt racism. This is not a defense of Zimmerman, because he is indefensible.

And They’re OFF!

As part of the World Cell Race at the American Society for Cell Biology meeting last week, teams from around the world raced cells in a petri dish to claim the title of “fastest cells in the world”.

I’m sure there’s some wonderful insights into cell motility here, but you probably just want to know who won … it was a bone marrow cell from Singapore, and it clocked in at 0.000000312 kilometers per hour.

Sperm cells were obviously disqualified.

(via Nature)

Black Researchers Getting Fewer Grants From NIH

The grant gap was quite substantial. Getting a grant is never easy, but in round numbers, white researchers succeeded about 25 percent of the time, and blacks succeeded about 15 percent of the time. An obvious question is whether this is the result of overt racism.  

“We can’t rule it out, but that’s not what we think is happening,” [Raynard] Kington says. “I think the more compelling case is that it is unconscious in various ways.”

… “If indeed we are biased in the way that we review some of our applications, that means that the American people’s money may not be going to the strongest scientific ideas,” he says.

This is not gonna raise any eyebrows, not at all.  Certainly not a sensitive subject or anything.  ;) “Some may say it as a joke, others might find it offensive, but it turns out there’s some truth to the idea that people of other races “all look alike.” A new study demonstrates that people have more trouble recognizing faces of people of other races. (via Why People of Other Races “All Look Alike” to You | Discoblog | Discover Magazine)
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This is not gonna raise any eyebrows, not at all.  Certainly not a sensitive subject or anything.  ;)

“Some may say it as a joke, others might find it offensive, but it turns out there’s some truth to the idea that people of other races “all look alike.” A new study demonstrates that people have more trouble recognizing faces of people of other races.

(via Why People of Other Races “All Look Alike” to You | Discoblog | Discover Magazine)

Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com