title: An unintentional pro-Black bias in judgement among educators.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous work indicates widespread preference for White over Black people in attitudes and behaviour. However, there are instances where Black people receive preferential treatment over White people.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to investigate whether a sample of education professionals would favour Black or White applicants to an academic honour society, and the extent to which any biases were related to conscious intentions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were education professionals (N = 618; 75.5% White) who completed an online study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed a hypothetical admissions task where they evaluated more and less qualified applicants for an academic honour society, and applicants were either White or Black. Participants also completed measures of implicit and explicit racial attitudes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Educational professionals at all levels showed a pro-Black bias in judgement, adopting a lower acceptance criterion for Black compared to White applicants, replicating previous work using online and undergraduate samples. The bias was present among participants reporting they did not want to be biased or believed they were unbiased, suggesting that bias arose without conscious awareness or intention. Bias was also weakly but reliably related to racial attitudes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings are consistent with the notion that educators automatically hold lower standards for Black versus White applicants. While education professionals likely have experience evaluating students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, these professionals were, nevertheless, unable to eliminate the impact of race in their decision-making.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Jordan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Axt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D004521:Educational Measurement; D000071195:Educational Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D063505:Racism / Q000523:psychology*; D044465:White People
keywords: bias; educators; implicit attitudes; prejudice; stereotyping