The Psychology of Stereotypes

When the white man's picture was shown, one child said, "He's nice." Another said, "I think he's nice except he might be mad about something."

The boy was probably picking up on something. The photo of a white man was of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Admittedly, the pictures were a little bit different, but when we asked which man is a criminal, most kids pointed to the black man. When we asked which man was a teacher, most pointed to McVeigh. This is ironic because the black man pictured was Harvard University professor Roland Fryer.

Click Here to Find Out How You Stereotype People

Most adults claim they don't have these biases, but psychologists who study stereotypes say they do.

Testing for Bias

Harvard University's Implicit Association Test is supposed to measure racial bias. The test flashes pictures of white and black faces and words like "evil" and "nasty," plus words like "joy" and "wonderful," and evaluates whether people associate different words with certain races.

The test is given quickly, so that test-takers don't have time to think consciously.

The test's designers say it can show whether or not you have a preference for anything -- skirts versus pants, Meg Ryan versus Julia Roberts.

"20/20" invited a group of Pace University students to take the test. They said they preferred Julia Roberts, and the test showed they did.

But when we told them the test results revealed other implicit biases, such as one against career women, the elderly, blacks, Arabs and gays, some students got defensive.

Researchers say the test shows what's really in your subconscious, with sometimes surprising results. Not just young people but old people, too, showed an overwhelming bias against the elderly.

"You wouldn't expect that old people would think that old is bad. But the elderly are every bit as negative about the idea of old age as much younger people are," said Anthony Greenwald, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.

The researchers also found about half of the black people who took this test showed bias against blacks. Greenwald says many people discover they have biases that they wish they didn't.

"I certainly don't want to think of myself as a racist. But these things are in my head, they show up on the test," said Greenwald.

Of course, the biases in our head are only harmful if we act on them.