You Can Reduce Prejudice, Racial and Gender Biases, While You Sleep

by Monica Joshi

Prejudice, racism and sexism tend to lurk in our unconscious minds despite our best efforts to be more tolerant. Even if our society deeply values egalitarianism, we are still influenced by racial or gender biases. That doesn't mean we can't change our views. Newly published research shows that not only can these biases be changed, but that we can use the simplest, most natural possible process to do it: sleep.

This new technique, developed by researchers at Northwestern University and University of Texas-Austin, allows anti-bias training to filter into our unconscious assumptions while we sleep. Their experiment featured 40 participants of the Northwestern University community who began by taking two versions of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The participants were all white and between the ages of 18 to 30. As the IAT can test the associative strength between a concept and a stereotype, it was a useful way to measure the participants' baseline implicit social biases.

The participants were required to take two versions of the test – one that looked at gender bias and another that looked at racial bias. Once the researchers had quantified each subject's implicit biases, the participants had to go through counter-stereotype training. This training was meant to reduce preexisting stereotypes by showing pictures of faces paired with words that countered a stereotype. For example, female faces were paired with words like math and science, or black faces with words like cheer, honour, and smile.  The researchers thereby targeted gender and racial stereotypes and biases.

During the research session, the researchers simultaneously played sound cues that became associated with these picture-word pairings. If the participant made a 'correct' response to a counter-bias stimuli pair, e.g. associating female faces with science words, then they heard a particular sound cue, which would later be replayed during their 90-minute nap.

When the participants awoke from their naps, they were tested for their levels of bias using the IAT. If a participant heard a sound cue associated with the counter gender bias training while they slept, then when they retook the IAT, they were far less likely to use stereotypes about (e.g.) women not being good at science.  According to the researchers, the biases were reduced by at least 50 percent relative to the pre-sleep bias levels.

At a one-week follow-up test, the sleep intervention was still effective. The effects of the sleep-intervention seem to be both long-lasting and promising. This is a very unexpected result of the study, as one-time intervention can quickly decay after people return to their normal lives.

Further research using a larger control group to test for similar biases in other parts of the world and not just attendees of a university could be very beneficial in understanding whether this could be a universal solution. It would also be interesting to see further research done to delve into the implicit biases that people hold within their own race or gender and whether these can be treated via sleep-therapy. In the future, it might also be useful to see if similar techniques can be used to reduce other biases such as a stigma towards disability, religion or even political preference.

This research is important and could lead us in the direction of treatment of our unconscious prejudices. As Heidi Halvorson has pointed out, the prejudices that we hold are hard to shake as they are deeply ingrained in our brains.