Psychology Colloquia: Dr. Jessica Remedios, Tufts University

Evidence for a Culture of Colorblindness in Psychology

Colorblindness (CB) is an intergroup ideology suggesting that race should not matter in day-to-day life and that, regardless of race, all people are the same. Although individuals who endorse CB often do so because they want to seem egalitarian, CB ignores real-world racial inequality and, as such, perpetuates (rather than disrupts) structural racism. In this talk, I will present evidence suggesting that CB is embedded within the culture of psychological science. CB may describe how psychologists do research to the extent that 1) race is perceived by psychologists as irrelevant to most psychological processes and 2) psychologists tend to ignore racial differences both between and within racial groups. Drawing on the “Culture Cycle” framework (Markus & Connor, 2014), this talk will discuss evidence for CB at multiple levels of culture: specifically, the ideas, institutional policies, interactions, and individual beliefs that characterize our field. Lastly, I will discuss the importance of recognizing CB in psychology, as CB may reduce the relevance of our research to, and the impact of our findings on, the real-world.

Speakers

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  Dr. Jessica Remedios

  Associate Professor of Psychology
  Tufts University