# STUDY: White Liberals Present Themselves as Less Competent in Interactions with African-Americans



## Attacker3 (Nov 27, 2018)

Link


According to new research by Cydney Dupree, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale SOM, white liberals tend to downplay their own verbal competence in exchanges with racial minorities, compared to how other white Americans act in such exchanges. The study is scheduled for publication in the _Journal of Personality and Social Psychology_. 

Warmth, related to intentions towards others, and competence, related to the ability to carry out those intentions, are two fundamental dimensions of how we see others and portray ourselves in social interactions. Stereotypical portrayals of black Americans generally show them as being less competent than their white counterparts, but not necessarily less friendly or warm, Dupree explains.

The team found that _Democratic candidates used fewer competence-related words in speeches delivered to mostly minority audiences _than they did in speeches delivered to mostly white audiences. The difference wasn’t statistically significant in speeches by Republican candidates, though “it was harder to find speeches from Republicans delivered to minority audiences,” Dupree notes. There was no difference in Democrats’ or Republicans’ usage of words related to warmth. “It was really surprising to see that for nearly three decades, Democratic presidential candidates have been engaging in this predicted behavior.” 

The researchers found that* liberal individuals were less likely to use words that would make them appear highly competent when the person they were addressing was presumed to be black rather than white.* No significant differences were seen in the word selection of conservatives based on the presumed race of their partner. “It was kind of an unpleasant surprise to see this subtle but persistent effect,” Dupree says. “Even if it’s ultimately well-intentioned, it could be seen as patronizing.”




I mean, I always knew this, but now there's been a study done that actually proves that liberals don't think that highly of minorities, at least subconsciously.


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## Hanafuda (Nov 27, 2018)

Attacker3 said:


> I mean, I always knew this, but now there's been a study done that actually proves that liberals don't think that highly of minorities, at least subconsciously.


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## Xzi (Nov 27, 2018)

Top tier shitposting right here.  Can we not devolve this subforum into posting negative individual studies and polls about one party or the other?

Let's be honest anyway: Republicans don't want black people voting for them, they've never extended any sort of olive branch to the black community.  They just also don't want black people voting for Democrats.


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## Clydefrosch (Nov 27, 2018)

you just know that rep candidates do this when talking to the rust belters.


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## IxthusTiger (Nov 27, 2018)

Attacker3 said:


> liberals don't think that highly of minorities, at least subconsciously.



White liberals, sure. They were raised in America with a history of racism and prejudice, same as white conservatives.

But Democrats have more women and minorities getting elected to office. Will their speeches become less patronizing? Probably.

Change is hard, and it takes a long time. But one party is trying to represent more equally, bit by bit.

The other party...



Attacker3 said:


> “it was harder to find speeches from Republicans delivered to minority audiences”



Republicans are not all racists, but white supremacists and nationalists prefer the Republican party.


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## nintendo1889 (Nov 28, 2018)

Xzi said:


> they've never extended any sort of olive branch to the black community.




Yeah, other than winning the civil war.



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## FAST6191 (Nov 28, 2018)

Is this what they call the soft bigotry of low expectations?

On the other hand does it work?


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## Xzi (Nov 28, 2018)

nintendo1889 said:


> Yeah, other than winning the civil war.


Let's not play that game.  Modern Republicans proudly fly confederate flags.


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## osaka35 (Nov 28, 2018)

It's important to define terms and understand implications. The study assumes the less complex language *by politicians* as an attempt to connect with minorities. It's important to note this isn't a study of why this may occur, just to what degree it happens. saying whythis happens is a guess, and would be the subject of a completely different study.

But since my guess is just as good as the authors of the paper, then it could be white liberal politicians perhaps check themselves when interacting with minorities before speaking. double checking if what they're saying is accessible and appropriate to everyone listening. Rather than be uncertain about some words used, so more accessible words are used instead. They may just not care about accessibility to fellow white liberals. Or maybe they're trying to pander, like most politicians, and are low-key racist. This is important to know so we can improve things and yell at the properly.

Just don't confuse politicians with the people they say they represent. Most conservative politicians push for big government and big spending when legislating, while saying they're doing the opposite to their constituents. Liberal politicians tend to push weakly for not very much while saying they're trying to help make the world a better place. Politics be crazy, yo.


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## FAST6191 (Nov 28, 2018)

While on the face of it I would like to agree with you, osaka35, I have seen so many people try to be hypersensitive and just make a mess of things*. Given said people now form a not insignificant fraction of the left wing/leaning (whatever that may be) political cadre then I still have to wonder.

*I have and have met many that have experienced someone try to describe the location of an object or a person and omit a potentially sensitive subject matter to the detriment of their ability to describe the thing they wanted to describe (example. There was a black guy the other side of the place I was in, someone with me was using harder to understand phrases than "see the black guy, two metres to his right" and got... apprehensive when I said the thing in quotations, maybe I was supposed to say African American). If that is fairly normal people I can only imagine what those that have been brainwashed to "see the struggle", or whatever that bollocks is phrased as this week, will do.

Again though does it work? It would be ridiculous to assume something of an individual but if you are talking to sufferers of black majority inner city US schools and their attendant home lives then not speaking like a toff might achieve you some votes (which is presumably all you care about).


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## WD_GASTER2 (Nov 28, 2018)

quite frankly people can be racist if they are liberal or conservative. Although as an observation I have seen one party specifically that pushes for way more incendiary rhetoric than the other.


FAST6191 said:


> *I have and have met many that have experienced someone try to describe the location of an object or a person and omit a potentially sensitive subject matter to the detriment of their ability to describe the thing they wanted to describe (example. There was a black guy the other side of the place I was in, someone with me was using harder to understand phrases than "see the black guy, two metres to his right" and got... apprehensive when I said the thing in quotations, maybe I was supposed to say African American). If that is fairly normal people I can only imagine what those that have been brainwashed to "see the struggle", or whatever that bollocks is phrased as this week, will do.
> .



I really do wonder if this is type of things vary depending where you live. I have lived in liberal Los Angeles (among other places) for a good chunk of my life and as long as you dont come off as someone with the intent of trying to be an asshole with the purpose to stereotype or mock someone for who they are people tend to be nice. the whole "this person got offended because i didnt use the right words" tends to be more of a caricature than reality at least from my real world experience. Turns out people can tell when others are saying things with poisonous intent. (FYI, not discounting your experiences, just giving a take from mine)


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## nintendo1889 (Nov 28, 2018)

Also the study doesn't account for the speechwriter being the politician themselves or someone else. It's usually someone else afaik.

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## The Catboy (Nov 28, 2018)

Confirmation bias, the thread.
This is just one single study and mostly focused on a rather small groups of people and with a lot of unaccounted factors.


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## jaderocc (Nov 28, 2018)

The subtle bigotry of low expectations.


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## Saiyan Lusitano (Nov 28, 2018)

Lilith Valentine said:


> Confirmation bias, the thread.
> This is just one single study and mostly focused on a rather small groups of people and with a lot of unaccounted factors.



The thread and this response are the perfect example of when a follower of a political group doesn't like what the article says and then goes on about how "This doesn't represent most of us but perhaps some."

Liberals think they're better than Conservatives, and Conservatives think they're better than Liberals.. This would be funny if this wasn't serious and dangerous.


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## The Catboy (Nov 29, 2018)

Saiyan Lusitano said:


> The thread and this response are the perfect example of when a follower of a political group doesn't like what the article says and then goes on about how "This doesn't represent most of us but perhaps some."
> 
> Liberals think they're better than Conservatives, and Conservatives think they're better than Liberals.. This would be funny if this wasn't serious and dangerous.


This is admitted confirmation bias right from OP


Attacker3 said:


> I mean, I always knew this, but now there's been a study done that actually proves that liberals don't think that highly of minorities, at least subconsciously.


Having already believed something and deciding that a single new study confirms one's beliefs is confirmation bias.
Additionally, it's not a matter of how I feel about these results, but a matter of factors that were not taken into the study.  They did a study on speeches from past presidents but didn't factor in speech writers nor did they watch videos to study body language during the speeches. Their studies did find that Liberals tend to be more choosy when picking their words and it ends up being patronizing, but never studied why this is the case. There are factors missing like "guilt" as some people call it, or the notion that a lot of White Liberals tend to feel as though they need to be careful when choosing their words as not to offend anyone. Often times a lot of Liberals want to be so accepting that they end up being patronizing without even realizing it. These kinds of factors can be studied through one on one interviews, but that wasn't taken in this study. Missing factors need more studies to understand why and what other social factors are in play here.


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## Attacker3 (Nov 29, 2018)

Lilith Valentine said:


> Having already believed something and deciding that a single new study confirms one's beliefs is confirmation bias.



Mega bullshit, my friend. That's not even what confirmation bias means, and the fact that you use it so confidently without knowing the basics brings in the question your comprehension of the idea itself. Confirmation bias has 3 types. Bias in the search for information, bias in interpretation, and biased memory. Memory doesn't apply to this, but let's go over the two things, shall we? 

-Bias in the search for information does not apply to this because I didn't go out searching for this. I didn't go over dozens of other papers just to find this one. I found this paper recently published, and I posted it here. 

-Bias in interpretation. I will concede that yes I am biased, as all people are, and that out of this information I have been provided I have come to my personal conclusion that white liberals try and dumb themselves down for minorities. Now I wan't to go deeper into this

I'm not even saying that it has to do with low expectations, it could be from the hero or rebel complex that liberals seem to have. They feel like they're fighting against some boogeyman they made up, be it rampant racism, sexism, or hundreds of thousands of nazis ready to strike, which I believe personally is a way to give meaning to their lives. That's not bad, but it makes the liberals think that the minorities within society can't fend for themselves, and they're trampled on constantly and need a "helping hand" of sorts, even though minorities at this point in time have it extremely well. Yes a guilt is a part of it as well, but let me reiterate, _I am not twisting the data in any way to support my argument_. I am merely taking the data that is given and drawing my own conclusions

That's what confirmation bias is, not that someone sees a study that confirms their hypothesis and posts it. Imagine scientists having a hypothesis that a certain treatment could cure a disease, and they found that it worked... but then the scientific community dismissed it as confirmation bias, because they guessed right. Absolute lunacy.

Otherwise, it seems you agree with me.


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## dAVID_ (Nov 30, 2018)

Xzi said:


> Let's not play that game.  Modern Republicans proudly fly confederate flags.


Classic strawman.


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## Xzi (Nov 30, 2018)

dAVID_ said:


> Classic strawman.


It's not a strawman.  Democrats at the time of Lincoln are Republicans today.  It's entirely disingenuous to pretend the parties never switched places when it comes to issues of race, among other things.


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## SG854 (Nov 30, 2018)

Attacker3 said:


> Link
> 
> 
> According to new research by Cydney Dupree, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale SOM, white liberals tend to downplay their own verbal competence in exchanges with racial minorities, compared to how other white Americans act in such exchanges. The study is scheduled for publication in the _Journal of Personality and Social Psychology_.
> ...


There’s different conclusions you can get from the study.

One is they think of Blacks as unintelligent.

The other is they are trying to downplay themselves and their success because they feel guilt.

Another is kind of like when kids speak to their parents politely, but with their friends they speak differently. They could be adjusting their speech to cater to different groups of people.

Is it racism? Not really, maybe for some, it depends on intent of person. It could be annoying for some people to dumb down speech. And the study itself mentions it could multiple factors. And not everyone is uniform beliefs even when it’s in same political parties.



osaka35 said:


> It's important to define terms and understand implications. The study assumes the less complex language *by politicians* as an attempt to connect with minorities. It's important to note this isn't a study of why this may occur, just to what degree it happens. saying whythis happens is a guess, and would be the subject of a completely different study.
> 
> But since my guess is just as good as the authors of the paper, then it could be white liberal politicians perhaps check themselves when interacting with minorities before speaking. double checking if what they're saying is accessible and appropriate to everyone listening. Rather than be uncertain about some words used, so more accessible words are used instead. They may just not care about accessibility to fellow white liberals. Or maybe they're trying to pander, like most politicians, and are low-key racist. This is important to know so we can improve things and yell at the properly.
> 
> Just don't confuse politicians with the people they say they represent. Most conservative politicians push for big government and big spending when legislating, while saying they're doing the opposite to their constituents. Liberal politicians tend to push weakly for not very much while saying they're trying to help make the world a better place. Politics be crazy, yo.


They mostly say things that gets them votes.

When you look at actual people not politicians Liberals and Conservatives both say they are for the people and trying to make the world a better place. They just have different ideas about going about it.


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## dAVID_ (Nov 30, 2018)

Xzi said:


> It's not a strawman.  Democrats at the time of Lincoln are Republicans today.  It's entirely disingenuous to pretend the parties never switched places when it comes to issues of race, among other things.


Define "Democrats at the time of Lincoln".
And that doesn't justify your generalization of the republican party.


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## Xzi (Nov 30, 2018)

dAVID_ said:


> Define "Democrats at the time of Lincoln".
> And that doesn't justify your generalization of the republican party.


IDK, I think they were called the wigs or something.  The party that was so extremely against ending slavery that they split the country in half.  There's a reason the Southern Strategy continues to work so well with Republicans.

It's also not a generalization, I didn't say ALL Republicans fly the confederate flag, but travel anywhere in the South and you'll be inundated with them.


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