From Puritan America through much of the 19th century, a same-sex relationship was punishable by death; today same-sex marriage is federally legalized. In 1937 only 33% of Americans believed that a qualified woman could be president; in 2015, 92% endorsed the possibility. In 1958 only 4% of white Americans approved of black-white marriages; today 87% of white Americans do. These findings highlight the fact that our minds can and do change toward greater equality of opportunity. This is good news for business leaders, since greater diversity has many benefits for organizations. For example, it allows the best talent to emerge, makes teams smarter, and improves financial performance.
Research: How Americans’ Biases Are Changing (or Not) Over Time
On race, gender, age, and other issues.
August 02, 2019, Updated August 14, 2019
Summary.
While we have known that explicit biases change over time, there have been some doubts about whether our more deeply held implicit biases can shift as well. The authors’ new research shows, for the first time, that the implicit attitudes of a society can and do change durably over time — although at different rates and in different directions depending on the issue. Drawing on data from over 4 million tests of explicit and implicit attitudes collected between 2007 and 2016, they found that Americans’ implicit attitudes about sexual orientation, race, and skin tone have all decreased meaningfully in bias. They also found some areas, such as attitudes about weight and disabilities, in which the news is not so positive.