Breaking the prejudice habit: Mechanisms, timecourse, and longevity

Abstract

The prejudice habit-breaking intervention (Devine et al., 2012) and its offshoots (e.g., Carnes et al., 2012) have shown promise in effecting long-term change in key outcomes related to intergroup bias, including increases in awareness, concern about discrimination, and, in one study, long-term decreases in implicit bias. This intervention is based on the premise that unintentional bias is like a habit that can be broken with sufficient motivation, awareness, and effort. We conducted replication of the original habit-breaking intervention experiment in a sample more than three times the size of the original (N = 292). We also measured all outcomes every other day for 14 days and measured potential mechanisms for the intervention’s effects. Consistent with previous results, the habit-breaking intervention produced a change in concern that endured two weeks post-intervention. These effects were associated with increased sensitivity to the biases of others and an increased tendency to label biases as wrong. Contrasting with the original work, both control and intervention participants decreased in implicit bias, and the effects of the habit-breaking intervention on awareness declined in the second week of the study. In a subsample recruited two years later, intervention participants were more likely than control participants to object on a public online forum to an essay endorsing racial stereotyping. Our results suggest that the habit-breaking intervention produces enduring changes in peoples’ knowledge of and beliefs about race-related issues, and we argue that these changes are even more important for promoting long-term behavioral change than are changes in implicit bias.

A gender bias habit-breaking intervention led to increased hiring of female faculty in STEMM departments

“…Devine and colleagues (2012) operationalized the components of the habit-breaking model into the prejudice habit-breaking intervention , which is thus far the only intervention experimentally shown to produce long-term changes in bias (Devine et al, 2012), with effects lasting at least 2 years post-manipulation (Forscher et al, 2017). One iteration of this intervention approach is the gender bias habit-breaking intervention (Carnes et al, 2015), which focused specifically on gender bias in STEMM fields and was implemented in a 2.5 hour workshop to individual departments.…”

“…Fourth, hiring decisions are made by departments, not individuals, which is well-matched to the cluster-randomized design, in which departments were assigned to receive the intervention or serve as controls. 1 In prior tests of the impact of the habit-breaking intervention, outcomes were assessed at the individual level even when evaluated as the cluster level (Carnes et al, 2015; Devine et al, 2012; Forscher et al, 2017). In the present context, we explore the potential for the intervention to affect individuals in ways that may promote change in institutional level outcomes.…”

Using Online Practice Spaces to Investigate Challenges in Enacting Principles of Equitable Computer Science Teaching

“…This draws on interdisciplinary research from social psychology [5][6], behavioral economics [7], and educational ___________________________________________________ Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored.…”

“…Asset framing is when a teacher sees the knowledge and skills that culturally diverse students possess as strengths [5]. In contrast, deficit thinking positions students with differences as lacking, at-risk, or otherwise deficient.…”

The Impact of Awareness on Reducing Social Bias in Behavior

“…Finally, an intensive six-week bias reduction intervention that raised awareness of bias (among other strategies) increased concerns about discriminatory behavior (Devine, Forscher, Austin & Cox, 2012;Forscher et al, 2017).…”