Implicit racial biases are lower in more populous more diverse and less segregated US cities.
Nat Commun
; 15(1): 961, 2024 Feb 06.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38321002
ABSTRACT
Implicit biases - differential attitudes towards members of distinct groups - are pervasive in human societies and create inequities across many aspects of life. Recent research has revealed that implicit biases are generally driven by social contexts, but not whether they are systematically influenced by the ways that humans self-organize in cities. We leverage complex system modeling in the framework of urban scaling theory to predict differences in these biases between cities. Our model links spatial scales from city-wide infrastructure to individual psychology to predict that cities that are more populous, more diverse, and less segregated are less biased. We find empirical support for these predictions in U.S. cities with Implicit Association Test data spanning a decade from 2.7 million individuals and U.S. Census demographic data. Additionally, we find that changes in cities' social environments precede changes in implicit biases at short time-scales, but this relationship is bi-directional at longer time-scales. We conclude that the social organization of cities may influence the strength of these biases.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Social Environment
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
/
Nature communications
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Country of publication: