Author Topic: Psychological decolonization  (Read 7082 times)

90sRetroFan

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Re: Psychological decolonization
« Reply #75 on: July 18, 2022, 08:55:12 pm »
No matter how bad I imagine Eurocentrism being, the reality is even worse than my most pessimistic estimates:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01902725221090900

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We find that as dogs’ names are increasingly perceived as White, people adopt them faster.
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Research has pointed to consistent results when it comes to the effects of racialized names. Whether the outcome is in the realm of hiring, housing, or a range of other areas that affect well-being and daily life, those with White-sounding names have an advantage over those with non-White-sounding names—including, but not limited to, those with Black- and Hispanic-sounding names
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While we know that racialized names affect humans’ outcomes, what happens when these racialized names are not tied to humans? Do the premiums that are typically associated with White names, and the penalties that are typically associated with Black and Hispanic names, continue to persist despite the names being attached to nonhuman entities? This study tests the effects of racialized names in a novel context: dog adoptions. Dogs, by definition, exist outside the human racial hierarchy—the unequal distribution of social resources and treatment that advantages Whites and disadvantages populations of color, particularly Blacks, darker-skinned Hispanics and Asians, and Native populations (Bonilla-Silva 2004). In short, dogs are not humans, so it follows that racialized names may not influence the adoption process.
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Results
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When 0 percent of the public perceives a dog’s name as White, that dog is expected to spend about 7.6 days in the shelter. Across the range of perceived Whiteness, however, time to adoption declines substantially. When 90 percent of the public perceives a dog’s name as White, that dog is expected to spend only about 6 days in the shelter (p < .05). Overall, then, perceptions of Whiteness emerge as a factor that encourages adoption among shelter dogs. When a dog’s name is perceived as White, adopters choose that dog more quickly than when a dog’s name is not perceived as White. This pattern emerges net of breed, personality, and other characteristics, suggesting that Whiteness is a salient (if unconscious) factor in dog adoption.
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When 0 percent of the public perceives a dog’s name as Black, that dog is expected to spend about 6.3 days in the shelter. Conversely, when 90 percent of the public perceives a dog’s name as Black, that dog is expected to remain in the shelter for 8.1 days—a difference of about 2 days.
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The patterns for Hispanic names, in the third panel, are muted by comparison. We observe only about a half-day difference in time to adoption between the least-Hispanic names and the most-Hispanic names
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When 0 percent of the public perceives a dog’s name as nonhuman, that dog is expected to spend 6.4 days at the shelter. In contrast, when 90 percent of the public perceives a dog’s name as nonhuman, that dog is expected to spend about 8 days at the shelter—a difference of slightly more than 1.5 days (p < .05).

Taken together, the results in Figure 1 demonstrate that names matter when it comes to the adoption of shelter dogs. Only White names carry a premium, in the sense that people adopt dogs with consensually White names significantly faster than their counterparts with less-White names. All other names, including Black names, Hispanic names, and especially nonhuman names, have either null or negative effects on dogs’ adoption outcomes.
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Discussion
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Taken together, these findings illustrate the durability of racialized names and their power to shape people’s behavior even when they are not tied to humans. Biases in favor of Whiteness and White people are so pervasive that they bleed into unrelated decision-making, ultimately affecting the way people interact with and evaluate pets as potential family members. One could potentially argue: What’s the big deal? Dogs with Black, Hispanic, and nonhuman names are adopted eventually, so what is the practical significance of these dogs being adopted slower than their counterparts with consensually White names? Although it might be tempting to make this argument, the fact that people use racialized names to make any distinctions among shelter dogs powerfully reinforces the patterns of racial discrimination and prejudice that continue to privilege Whites ahead of other groups in American society. Given the volume of research on racial discrimination in this country, including research into forms of discrimination that matter profoundly for Black lives (e.g., patterns related to policing, mass incarceration), it is perhaps not surprising that people carry these prejudices with them when they visit a dog shelter. What is more surprising, however, is the way these prejudices manifest to affect their interactions with animals—similar to Rosnow’s (1972:53) description of prejudice as “any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence.”11 Bias on the basis of racialized names is part of an unreasonable attitude structure regardless of whether it emerges in the context of hiring discrimination or a dog shelter. But when we see evidence of racial prejudices in unlikely settings, the pervasiveness of racism is laid particularly bare.
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As a final thought, we consider a question that many shelter personnel might have as a result of this study. If White-sounding names have the potential to accelerate adoption (especially among pit bulls), should we just give all the dogs White-sounding names? Given our results, this might seem like a “quick fix” that allows shelters to guard against any latent prejudices that clients bring with them onto the adoption floor. But in the long run, this would do nothing to combat the beliefs that allow these inequalities to persist, both in the context of the dog shelter and in the wider world. We therefore advise against this practice because this would be akin to leaning into bias. We cannot alter our behavior as a society to accommodate those with racist inclinations, even when those inclinations manifest in unlikely places.

« Last Edit: July 18, 2022, 09:03:50 pm by 90sRetroFan »