2010年6月英语六级真题快速阅读原文与参考答案_大学英语阅读

2010年6月英语六级真题快速阅读原文与参考答案

What can explain this dramatic shift? At the start of the test, the participants had to declare their race and were told their results would be used to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This should have primed the subjects with stereotype threat an anxiety that their results will confirm negative stereotypes, which has been shown to damage the performance of African Americans.

Obamas successes seemed to act as a shield against this. We suspect they felt inspired and energised by his victory, so the stereotype threat wouldnt prove a distraction, says Friedman.

Lingering racism

If the Obama effect is positive for African Americans, how is it affecting their white compatriots (同胞)? Is the experience of having a charismatic (有魅力的) black president modifying lingering racist attitudes? There is no easy way to measure racism directly; instead psychologists assess what is known as implicit bias, using a computer-based test that measures how quickly people associate positive and negative wordssuch as love or evilwith photos of black or white faces. A similar test can also measure how quickly subjects associate stereotypical traitssuch as athletic skills or mental abilitywith a particular group.

In a study that will appear in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Plants team tested 229 students during the height of the Obama fever. They found that implicit bias has fallen by as much as 90% compared with the level found in a similar study in 2006. Thats an unusually large drop, Plant says.