Reducing Racial Bias Using a Conflicting Relations Paradigm: A Systematic Replication of Mizael et al. (2016)

Abstract

Mizael et al. (The Psychological Record 66:451–462, 2016) successfully reduced negative evaluations of Black faces and minimized the valence differences between ratings of Black and White faces by establishing equivalent relations that conflicted with racial bias. We replicated this procedure in a repeated measures design and included the doll test and an implicit test to investigate generalization. Nine children who demonstrated negative evaluations of Black faces were trained to relate a positive symbol (A1) to an abstract stimulus (B1) and B1 to images of Black faces (C1) over the course of 2 days. Baselines of racial bias measures were conducted three times before the intervention and then twice after. A follow-up assessment, including a test of equivalence-class maintenance and readministration of baseline measures, was conducted 15 days after the last baseline assessment. Eight participants formed an equivalence relation between Black faces and the positive symbol that was maintained 2 weeks after the intervention. Before the intervention, there was a significant difference between the evaluations of White and Black faces; after the intervention, there was no significant difference. Two out of three participants with implicit racial bias showed reduced bias postintervention, and one of the four participants with racial bias in the doll test displayed intervention generalization. Overall, our findings replicated the results of Mizael et al. The Psychological Record, 66, 451–462, (Mizael et al., The Psychological Record 66:451–462, 2016). However, the high level of disparity between stimuli used in the initial participant screening bias test and those employed in the tests for function change generalization pose challenges for interpreting the results. Further research is necessary to more firmly establish reliable function transformation and generalization procedures.