首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Obama’s Success Isn’t All Good News for Black Americans A)As Erin White watched the election results head towards victory for Ba
Obama’s Success Isn’t All Good News for Black Americans A)As Erin White watched the election results head towards victory for Ba
admin
2014-12-31
52
问题
Obama’s Success Isn’t All Good News for Black Americans
A)As Erin White watched the election results head towards victory for Barack Obama, she felt a burden lifting from her shoulders. "In that one second, it was a validation for my whole race," she recalls.
B)"I’ve always been an achiever," says White, who is studying for an MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. "But there had always been these things in the back of my mind questioning whether I really can be who I want. It was like a shadow, following me around saying you can only go so far. Now it’ s like a barrier has been let down."
C)White’s experience is what many psychologists had expected—that Obama would prove to be a powerful role model for African Americans. Some hoped his rise to prominence would have a big impact on white Americans, too, challenging those who still harbor racist sentiments. "The traits that characterise him are very contradictory to the racial stereotypes that black people are aggressive and uneducated," says Ashby Plant of Florida State University. "He’s very intelligent and eloquent."
Sting in the tail
D)Ashby Plant is one of a number of psychologists who seized on Obama’s candidacy to test hypotheses about the power of role models. Their work is already starting to reveal how the "Obama effect" is changing people’ s views and behavior. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not all good news: there is a sting in the tail of the Obama effect.
E)But first the good news, Barack Obama really is a positive role model for African Americans, and he was making an impact even before he got to the White House. Indeed, the Obama effect can be surprisingly immediate and powerful, as Ray Friedman of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues discovered.
F)They tested four separate groups at four key stages of Obama’s presidential campaign. Each group consisted of around 120 adults of similar age and education, and the test assessed their language skills. At two of these stages, when Obama’ s success was less than certain, the tests showed a clear difference between the scores of the white and black participants—an average of 12.1 out of 20, compared to 8.8, for example. When the Obama fever was at its height, however, the black participants performed much better. Those who had watched Obama’s acceptance speech as the Democrats’ presidential candidate performed just as well, on average, as the white subjects. After his election victory, this was true of all the black participants.
Dramatic shift
G)What can explain this dramatic shift? At the start of the test, the participants had to declare their race and were told their results would be used to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This should have primed the subjects with "stereotype threat"—an anxiety that their results will confirm negative stereotypes, which has been shown to damage the performance of African Americans.
H)Obama’s successes seemed to act as a shield against this. "We suspect they felt inspired and energized by his victory, so the stereotype threat wouldn’t prove a distraction," says Friedman.
Lingering racism
I)If the Obama effect is positive for African Americans, how is it affecting their white compatriots(同胞)? Is the experience of having a charismatic(有魅力的)black president modifying lingering racist attitudes? There is no easy way to measure racism directly; instead psychologists assess what is known as "implicit bias", using a computer-based test that measures how quickly people associate positive and negative words—such as "love" or "evil"—with photos of black or white faces. A similar test can also measure how quickly subjects associate stereotypical traits—such as athletic skills or mental ability—with a particular group.
J)In a study that will appear in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Plant’s team tested 229 students during the height of the Obama fever. They found that implicit bias has fallen by as much as 90% compared with the level found in a similar study in 2006. "That’ s an unusually large drop," Plant says.
K)While the team can’t be sure their results are due solely to Obama, they also showed that those with the lowest bias were likely to subconsciously associate black skin colour with political words such as "government" or "president". This suggests that Obama was strongly on their mind, says Plant.
Drop in bias
L)Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who runs a website that measures implicit bias using similar test, has also observed a small drop in bias in the 700,000 visitors to the site since January 2007, which might be explained by Obama’s rise to popularity. However, his preliminary results suggest that change will be much slower coming than Plant’s results suggest.
Talking honestly
M)"People now have the opportunity of expressing support for Obama every day," says Daniel Effron at Stanford University in California. "Our research arouses the concern that people may now be more likely to raise negative views of African Americans." On the other hand, he says, it may just encourage people to talk more honestly about their feelings regarding race issues, which may not be such a bad thing.
N)Another part of the study suggests far more is at stake than the mere expression of views. The Obama effect may have a negative side. Just one week after Obama was elected president, participants were less ready to support policies designed to address racial inequality than they had been two weeks before the election.
Beyond race
O)We also don’t yet know how long the Obama effect—both its good side and its bad—will last. Political sentiment is notoriously changeable: What if things begin to go wrong for Obama, and his popularity slumps?
P)And what if Americans become so familiar with having Obama as their president that they stop considering his race altogether? "Over time he might become his own entity," says Plant. This might seem like the ultimate defeat for racism, but ignoring the race of certain select individuals—a phenomenon that psychologists call subtyping—also has an insidious(隐伏的)side. "We think it happens to help people preserve their beliefs, so they can still hold on to the previous stereotypes." That could turn out to be the cruelest of all the twists to the Obama effect.
Psychologists Ashby Plant has done some test hypotheses of role model, and "Obama effect" on people’ s view and behavior.
选项
答案
D
解析
题干关键词Ashby Plant和test hypotheses。文中D段提到。Ashby Plant在研究榜样的作用,Their work is already starting to reveal how the“Obama effect”is changing people’s views and behavior,与题干意思一致,故选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/9Tq7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Would-belanguageteacherseverywherehaveonethingincommon:theyallwantsomerecognitionoftheirprofessionalstatusand
A、People’sattitudetowardsthem.B、Theperiodofbeingdisabled.C、Theformoftheirdisability.D、People’sphysicalcondition.
IstheInternetMakingUsForgetful?AtouristtakesapictureoftheEmpireStateBuildingonhisiPhone,deletesit,then
Peopleintheirsixtiesshouldgotouniversitytoretrainbecausetheywillbeexpectedtoworkforlongerbeforeretirement,【C
A、Heisnotcooperative.B、Hewillbeinhisofficeallafternoon.C、Hehasnotreadanyofthearticleshimself.D、Healreadyb
A、Tolookforcreativeideasofawardingemployees.B、Toexplorestrategiesforloweringproductioncosts.C、Toseeknewapproac
OnefeatureofnewfoundwealthinthedevelopingworldhasbeentheembraceofWesternluxurylabels.Butsincetheglobalecono
OnefeatureofnewfoundwealthinthedevelopingworldhasbeentheembraceofWesternluxurylabels.Butsincetheglobalecono
Farewell,Libraries?Amazon.com’srecentannouncementthatsalesofe-booksattheonlinemegastorehadovertakensalesofh
A、Theloaningrateistoohigh.B、Theloanprocedureiscomplex.C、Shewouldn’tbeabletogetaloan.D、Shehatestohavedebt
随机试题
入侵分析技术按功能不同,可分为几种类型;以下哪种技术是用来检测有无对系统的已知弱点进行的攻击行为_______
Scarcelyhadtheysettledintheirseatsinthecinema______thefilmbegan.
A.蚕豆病B.苯丙酮尿症C.帕金森病D.镰刀型红细胞贫血症(2012年第130题)与多巴胺生成障碍有关的疾病是
男性,10岁,6周前外伤致左股骨中上段螺旋形骨折,目前大腿部仍有酸痛。X线片示:远端向上移位2cm,向内向后移位1/3,断端向前成角10°,已有骨痂形成,骨折线趋于模糊,其首选治疗方案是( )女性,42岁,工作时右小腿被机器压碾伤,X线片提示胫腓骨
升高血糖浓度的最重要的激素是
“管理的深处是()”。
长江公司系上市公司,属于增值税一般纳税人,适用的增值税税率为17%。适用的所得税税率为25%,所得税采用资产负债表债务法核算。不考虑除增值税、所得税以外的其他相关税费。长江公司按当年实现净利润的10%提取法定盈余公积。长江公司2012年度所得税汇算清缴于2
根据下列文字回答问题。央行公布的2007年10月份金融数据显示,前10个月贷款增速已达17.66%,中国金融机构人民币各项贷款余额已达26.03万亿元人民币,境内金融机构人民币各项贷款增加3.5万亿元,同比多增7265亿元。2006年全
下列关于IPSec协议,错误的是()。
Ienjoyedtheplay--ithadacleverplotandveryfunnydialogues.
最新回复
(
0
)