Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Air We Breathe: Implicit Bias And Police Shootings

Santiago Mejia/The San Francisco Chronicle
/
Getty Images

Nearly three weeks have passed since George Floyd, a black man, was killed by police in Minneapolis. Since then, people across the United States, and the world, have taken to the streets to protest and mourn his death. These protests have accelerated a global conversation on the issue of racism and police brutality — especially in communities of color.

But this conversation is not new.

This week on Hidden Brain, we look at research on the role that implicit bias plays in killings like these — and how such bias affects everyone in the culture, not just police officers.

Additional resources:

This episode includes references to research published in Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald's book Blindspot , Seth Stephens-Davidowitz's book Everybody Lies ,and papers by Eric Hehman, and Joshua Correll. You'll also hear from Philip Tetlock. If you'd like to take the Implicit Association Test yourself after listening, click here.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Shankar Vedantam is the host and creator of Hidden Brain. The Hidden Brain podcast receives more than three million downloads per week. The Hidden Brain radio show is distributed by NPR and featured on nearly 400 public radio stations around the United States.
Jennifer Schmidt is a senior producer for Hidden Brain. She is responsible for crafting the complex stories that are told on the show. She researches, writes, gathers field tape, and develops story structures. Some highlights of her work on Hidden Brain include episodes about the causes of the #MeToo movement, how diversity drives creativity, and the complex psychology of addiction.
Tara Boyle is the supervising producer of NPR's Hidden Brain. In this role, Boyle oversees the production of both the Hidden Brain radio show and podcast, providing editorial guidance and support to host Shankar Vedantam and the shows' producers. Boyle also coordinates Shankar's Hidden Brain segments on Morning Edition and other NPR shows, and oversees collaborations with partners both internal and external to NPR. Previously, Boyle spent a decade at WAMU, the NPR station in Washington, D.C. She has reported for The Boston Globe, and began her career in public radio at WBUR in Boston.
Rhaina Cohen is a producer and editor for NPR's Enterprise Storytelling unit, working across Embedded, Invisibilia, and Rough Translation.