Speaker 1: The Missouri State Journal, a weekly program, keeping you in touch with Missouri State University.
Nicki Donnelson: Bullying and diversity are two hot topics, and they relate directly to the research of my guest today on the Missouri State Journal. Dr Adena Young-Jones, Associate Professor of Psychology at Missouri State, developed curriculum for Psychology of Diverse Populations Course, which allows students to discover subconscious preferences, evaluating these subtle prejudices so that they may grow past them. 
The students also serve as a primary source for one of her long-term research projects. The students take the Implicit Association Test, a test developed in the early 1990's, at the beginning and end of each semester to reveal potential underlying bias.
A. Young-Jones:	Words or images are flashed on a computer screen, and then the participants quickly sort these according to predetermined instructions. There's IAT task for all different aspects of diversity, ranging from gender, to disability, to age, to sexuality. The race IAT utilizes black faces and white faces, and then they're paired with good and bad words, and the test evaluates its automatic preferences. We would say that a person has implicit preference for a white person, compared to a black person if they categorize words faster when white people are paired with good words, and black people are paired with bad words, versus the opposite.
Nicki Donnelson: Young-Jones explained that prejudice is often expressed through subtle words and actions, and done without conscious awareness.
A. Young-Jones: Modern prejudice is basically defined as expressions of prejudice that are subtle, they're easily justified, and they're difficult to detect. Modern prejudice, it clouds the ability for people to acknowledge prejudice in themselves, so this subtle form of prejudice then leads people to overlook their own fallacies. An example of modern prejudice would be saying, "I'm not racist, I just think that in this particular instance, I wouldn't vote for a black person because they don't support my views." You get around the issue without maybe even consciously recognizing it in yourself, or maybe you do recognize it in yourself, but then your self presentation to other people, you skirt the issue. 
Taking the IAT can help someone identify their true internal level of implicit prejudice, and then consciously evaluate their own personal biases toward out groups. This awareness allows people to become actively involved in developing cultural competence, so when you're aware about something, you can do something about it.
Nicki Donnelson: Many people may neglect to recognize their own prejudices. This can decrease the reliability of data gathered solely from explicit surveys. She elaborates.
A. Young-Jones: People like to think positively about themselves. We have self-serving biases and also social desirability in that we don't believe that we're actually prejudiced, or we don't want to come across in that way. In fact, everyone holds prejudices to some degree, but you don't have to act on those prejudices, so when you actually act on those prejudices, that's taking it the next step to discrimination. 
The IAT, it just helps people become aware of their biases, and that they can occur outside your conscious awareness. Results from the free online test categorize prejudice in either strong, moderate, slight, or no preference, and so when you get the results, and if it reveals that you are prejudice, hopefully it would make you stop and evaluate your true feelings, your true beliefs, and hopefully, in turn, this will prompt you to work through and move past some of those hidden prejudices.
Nicki Donnelson:Since 2012, Young-Jones has collected implicit and explicit data in her classes. Overall, the explicit and implicit results continually demonstrate the positive impacts of diversity curriculum.
A. Young-Jones:In the context of contemporary society, I believe that the majority of citizens believe themselves to have achieved cultural competence, for the most part. In actuality, it's an ongoing process, so to create a safe and cultural competent environment here at MSU, and even in our community, we have to recognize that modern prejudice exists, and also that bias, it may manifest in the forms of microaggression. This recognition enables us to move forward in helping us to have those difficult conversations that allow individuals, institutions, and even society to learn better techniques to celebrate diversity, to unite communities, encourage critical thinking by expanding what is our comfort zone, and even what we think about ourselves. We need to engage with people different from ourselves, we need to learn from others, and again, it's a continual process.
Nicki Donnelson:That was Dr Adena Young-Jones. I'm Nicki Donnelson for the Missouri State Journal.
Speaker 1:For more information, contact the office of University Communications at: 417 836 6397.