Feeling blue because the MacArthur folks didn’t call again this year? If you’re not lucky enough to be a genius grant winner, you can do the next best thing: feel like a MacArthur Fellow research subject!One of today’s grantees, Chicago girl Jennifer Richeson of Northwestern University, is a social scientist who “examines the behavioral and cognitive consequences of prejudice and racial stereotyping to reveal original insights into the dynamics of interracial interaction” (according the MacArthur web site).
She has absolutely nothing to do with Project Implicit (that I’m aware of), but when I heard her interviewed on Chicago Tonight her research reminded me of a test I took at tolerance.org a few years back that was designed by Project Implicit (a collaboration between Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington) to test for hidden biases – aka prejudice. My neutral score was hard won: the stress – while testing -- was intense.
Richeson’s research is interested in taking a closer look at that kind of stress -- the "I hope I'm not offending anyone by being a bigoted jerk" variety. (Stop by Project Implicit to subject yourself to the misery and self-loathing: link).
Anyone who’s brave enough to look bigotry square in the eye – to study it, circle it, and turn it inside out to see what makes it tick and how it impacts our daily lives -- is worth half a million dollars in my book.
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