Did You Know...

So, the Washington Post is hyping a study purporting to show that conservatives are more biased against blacks than liberals. (Hat tip: Tim Graham at Newsbusters, who has more.)

The study, which was presented at a conference held by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal or anywhere else for that matter. But that didn’t stop the Post from trumpeting: “Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases.”

Th[e] study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.

“What automatic biases reveal is that while we have the feeling we are living up to our values, that feeling may not be right,” said University of Virginia psychologist Brian Nosek, who helped conduct the race analysis. “We are not aware of everything that causes our behavior, even things in our own lives.”

RNC spokesman Brian Jones points out the researchers’ own potential biases:

Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said he disagreed with the study’s conclusions but that it was difficult to offer a detailed critique, as the research had not yet been published and he could not review the methodology. He also questioned whether the researchers themselves had implicit biases — against Republicans — noting that Nosek and Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji had given campaign contributions to Democrats.

Indeed, here are the donation records for Nosek and Banaji, which you can find at PoliticalMoneyLine:

This information should be included in any MSM article about the study. Why didn’t the Washington Post report the details of the scientists’ political contributions? Biases, anyone?

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Contact the Post here.

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Matt at The Only Republican in San Francisco:

I propose a study to correlate party affiliation with a predisposition toward accusing others of racism. What do you think we would find?