An unintentional pro‐Black bias in judgement among educators

Abstract

Previous work indicates widespread preference for White over Black people in attitudes and behaviour. However, there are instances where Black people receive preferential treatment over White people. This study aimed to investigate whether a sample of education professionals would favour Black or White applicants to an academic honour society, and the extent to which any biases were related to conscious intentions. Participants were education professionals (N=618; 75.5% White) who completed an online study. Participants completed a hypothetical admissions task where they evaluated more and less qualified applicants for an academic honour society, and applicants were either White or Black. Participants also completed measures of implicit and explicit racial attitudes. Educational professionals at all levels showed a pro-Black bias in judgement, adopting a lower acceptance criterion for Black compared to White applicants, replicating previous work using online and undergraduate samples. The bias was present among participants reporting they did not want to be biased or believed they were unbiased, suggesting that bias arose without conscious awareness or intention. Bias was also weakly but reliably related to racial attitudes. These findings are consistent with the notion that educators automatically hold lower standards for Black versus White applicants. While education professionals likely have experience evaluating students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, these professionals were, nevertheless, unable to eliminate the impact of race in their decision-making.