meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Science Quickly

Women Candidates Face Implicit Bias Hurdle

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2015

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Volunteers taking an "implicit bias" test who were unlikely to associate images of women with leadership titles like executive or president were far less likely to vote for a woman in a race against a man of equal qualification   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.j.p. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.7

This is Scientific Americans' 60-second science. I'm Erica Barris. Got a minute?

0:40.2

In general, even those who purport to have very egalitarian views or even feminist views of the world,

0:47.2

when they were taking this test, and it's called the implicit association test, people are struggling

0:52.4

to really associate women with leadership words.

0:56.7

Political scientist Cecilia Jung-Jung-Mo of Vanderbilt University. She measured what's known as

1:02.1

the implicit bias of some 400 study participants. When they saw an image of a man, the subjects

1:08.2

were more likely to pair that picture with words like

1:10.9

presidents and executive. But when they saw a female, they chose words like assistant and

1:16.3

aid. Mo then asked the volunteers how they would vote in two-person races. Those who were least

1:22.3

likely to associate images of women with words associated with leadership. Often chose the male candidate over the female candidate when I intentionally set it up

1:32.0

so that the two candidates were equally qualified. And sometimes I made the woman slightly

1:37.5

more qualified. The association was a little weaker so that that qualification did help her,

1:42.6

but not as much as I would have hoped.

1:45.0

And if I made the male candidate slightly more qualified, then he sort of overwhelmed people's preferences.

1:53.2

They were actually explicitly saying, like, yes, I'm happy to have a female president.

1:56.9

But simultaneously, they were struggling on this test to really see a woman as a leader.

2:03.6

And that was translating to candidate preferences. The research is in the journal Political Behavior.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Scientific American, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Scientific American and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.