Morality and colour - The association of white with virtue and black with sinfulness - Polidicks

[quote=The Economist]THE virtuous are often said to be as “pure as the driven snow” while villains are frequently described as having hearts of coal or blackened souls. And the metaphor is made flesh (or, at least cloth) in many plays and films where the baddy wears black and the goody white. But how deep does the metaphor actually run, psychologically speaking? That is the question which was asked by Gary Sherman and Gerald Clore of the University of Virginia. They were pondering a well-known tendency, called the “Macbeth effect”, for people to want to clean themselves physically if they have acted unethically or even had thoughts of corrupt behaviour. (The name comes from the scene in Shakespeare’s play in which Lady Macbeth desperately tries to wash phantom bloodstains from her hands after encouraging her husband to murder the king.) This association of cleanliness with moral probity is further bound up with the now well-established link between moral disgust (eg, at unusual sexual practices) and physical disgust (eg, at handling dirty objects or eating polluted food). The researchers’ ponderings led them to wonder if the moral roles of black, which is roughly the colour of dirt, and white, which shows up the dirt so well, were connected with the Macbeth effect. To explore this, they devised an experiment involving 27 Caucasian, six Asian, three African-American and two Hispanic students at the university. The students were all asked to state the colour of words that they were presented with as quickly as they could. Such a technique is not new. Psychologists have long known that if people are presented with, say, the word “blue” printed in a blue font, they will be able to state the colour of the font much faster than if the word “red” is printed in the same blue font. The study conducted by Mr Sherman and Dr Clore presented words of moral goodness, like “virtuous” and “honesty”, and of badness, like “cheat” and “sin”, in either black or white fonts on a computer screen. As they report in Psychological Science, the two researchers found that when “good” words were presented in black it took the participants about 510 milliseconds to state the colour of the word. When these same words were presented in white it took roughly 480 milliseconds—a significant difference. A similar effect was seen with “bad” words. Responding to white ones took around 525 milliseconds, whereas black ones needed only about 500. These results are remarkably similar to those found when words are printed in colours that clash with their meaning. Besides illuminating an interesting corner of the Macbeth effect, Mr Sherman and Dr Clore suggest that their findings may have implications for understanding racial prejudice. Given that their work hints that blackness and immorality are psychologically connected, and that the labels “black” and “white” are often applied to race, dark skin might thus easily be associated with immorality and impurity. Because most of the study group were white, and only three black, there is no way of detecting from the original data whether black people react in the same way as others, and thus whether the link between colour and disgust is independent of race. As a result, the two researchers are now conducting a follow-up study to look for racial differences. That study is not yet complete but, according to Mr Sherman, “initial results are suggesting that this effect is not confined to Caucasians”. Perhaps, then, one reason that so many black Americans get a bad rap is not just that their skin colour differs from that of the majority, but that their psychology, being the same as everybody else’s, does not.[/quote] [url=http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14119817]Article[/url] As is suggested by the scientists, black people seem to make the same subconscious connections as white people. Well no shit, and I'll bet when they are going to do that follow-up study they will find that there are next to no racial differences. That is because the US is predominantly white, and as a result black Americans have a lot in common with white Americans. For example, there is that famous experiment where little kids are given puppets, one black and one white, and have to say which one is prettier. The white puppet was picked by most of the contestants, and most importantly, the black kids chose the white puppet most of the time, too. This is likely to the white domination of televison and other media. I suppose consucting this test, in an African country would give a different result.

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You mean black and white people raised in the same place think similarly?! No way bro.

[QUOTE=Billiam;16402555]You mean black and white people raised in the same place think similarly?! No way bro.[/QUOTE] I wasn't pretending it was something new. And the article isn't about that, it seems you only read the stuff I wrote and didn't bother with the article. :nyd:

This is pretty much all about culture. If the human race was really the blind mole man race, black would probibly mean purity and "whiteness" would probibly mean evil. It has nothing to do with race and more to do with the fact that people as a whole "operate" under "light" and not darkness. Incase you haven't figured it out yet, people tend to not function as well in pitch black as they do in the light, for the fact that our skin needs sunlight for health and our eyes operate using light. Put to and two together, mix culture in there, and you can easily see why people are afraid of the dark naturally. It's unknown, unfamiliar territory. And it's probably why black things are traditionally symbolized as bad, and things that are white are traditionally symbolized as good.

This has nothing to do with race. Black has long been associated with evil, and white with good. I assume it comes from the fact that black = dark = unknown.

[QUOTE=Poltergeist Three;16402608]I wasn't pretending it was something new. And the article isn't about that, it seems you only read the stuff I wrote and didn't bother with the article. :nyd:[/QUOTE] Guilty. What I'm sleepy :|

what if you don't believe in the dichotomy of virtue and evil

[QUOTE=ImBill;16402752]what if you don't believe in the dichotomy of virtue and evil[/QUOTE] I guess you'd pick gray for everything then :D?

[QUOTE=ImBill;16402752]what if you don't believe in the dichotomy of virtue and evil[/QUOTE] what if you never use periods or capital letters

[QUOTE=Penis Colada;16402782]what if you never use periods or capital letters[/QUOTE] I'd guess everything would be harder to read and look less professional :D?

[QUOTE=ImBill;16402752]what if you don't believe in the dichotomy of virtue and evil[/QUOTE] Then you'd need to ask yourself why you are posting in a thread on that exact topic.

or it could just do with the amount of melanin in your skin

Great thread, it's already started a shitstorm.

White chicks ARE pretty hot.

[QUOTE=rilez;16403262]or it could just do with the amount of melanin in your skin[/QUOTE] or you could just read the article

[QUOTE=McSanchez;16403406]White chicks ARE pretty hot.[/QUOTE] Black chicks ARE pretty not.

i like sin. :q:

[QUOTE=Zeke129;16402656]This has nothing to do with race. Black has long been associated with evil, and white with good. I assume it comes from the fact that black = dark = unknown.[/QUOTE] you sead something had nothing do do with race followed with a racial comment, which is so becuase evil is considered bad,

[url]http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/jailrairtab.htm[/url] Maybe most people are smart enough to realize the above? What kind of study is this? It seems like the study is trying to derail common sense.

[QUOTE=Poltergeist Three;16403408]or you could just read the article[/QUOTE] they're trying to relate skin color to good and bad things "oh, people hate black people because it makes them think of bad things" [quote]..dark skin might thus easily be associated with immorality and impurity.[/quote] most of the people who hate black people were raised to think that way. I usually don't think of dark colors as bad things, and when I see a black guy, I don't think "immoral" so I don't see what the FUCK this study is supposed to prove, other than the fact that there might be some basis for racism, which is stupid.

Thats totally illogical. Breaking the theory down into it's most base concepts. Why do we like chocolate?

because it's a sinful delight

[QUOTE=Cluckyx;16404641]Thats totally illogical. Breaking the theory down into it's most base concepts. Why do we like chocolate?[/QUOTE] You associate chocolate with taste rather than sight, I don't think that's a good example. You find that chocolate tastes good, so you associate it with the concept of good.

[img]http://www.traileraddict.com/content/columbia-pictures/white_chicks.jpg[/img] This is relevant

[QUOTE=Billiam;16402555]You mean black and white people raised in the same place think similarly?! No way bro.[/QUOTE] might want to explain that bro

You might also refer to it as Light and Dark. Light as in sunshine, and dark as in no sunshine. Even that reference to “pure as the driven snow” doesn't fit, fresh snow is pretty white and clean looking, in contrast wet adobe is black and, by being mud, is dirty. People read into it too much, it's just a common theme unrelated to race.

[QUOTE=snuwoods;16403860][url]http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/jailrairtab.htm[/url] Maybe most people are smart enough to realize the above? What kind of study is this? It seems like the study is trying to derail common sense.[/QUOTE] Racism can't be explained with the high number of black prisoners in the US. Or rather, not all racism. For one, racism is an extremely old phenomenon, secondly racism exists in countries where the number of black prisoners isn't as extremely high as in the US. I don't know if this whole colour theory is a reasonable answer, and it's definitely not the only answer. But it's worth pursuing.

You're figuring this out just now?

:/ In many places it is the white man who is regarded as evil...