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White Liberals Dumb Themselves Down When they Speak to Black People, a new Study Contends

truthatallcost

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A new study suggests that the words you use may depend on whether the club secretary’s name is Emily (“a stereotypically White name,” as the study says) or Lakisha (“a stereotypically Black name”).

But if you’re a white conservative, your diction won’t depend on the presumed race of your interlocutor.

This racial and political disparity is among the discoveries made by a pair of social psychologists in a paper forthcoming in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Psychological Association. Cydney Dupree, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management, and Susan Fiske, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton, documented what they call a “competence downshift” exhibited by white liberals in interactions with racial minorities, and with black people in particular.

The psychologists further discovered that white liberals rarely admit to the goal of appearing less competent, a fact that highlights the role of implicit bias and “the covert nature of the competence downshift strategy.”

“White liberals may unwittingly draw on negative stereotypes, dumbing themselves down in a likely well-meaning, ‘folksy,’ but ultimately patronizing, attempt to connect with the outgroup,” argues the paper, titled “Self-Presentation in Interracial Settings: The Competence Downshift by White Liberals.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ontends/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.27dda5466d51

The study also found that white liberal politicians were likely to dumb down speeches aimed at minority audiences, while conservative politicians do not.

Nothing is more frustrating than a white liberal stereotyping blacks and minorities, & adopting a faux urban vibe in their speech pattern as soon as they see a black person.

Just stop it white liberals, it's gross.
 
The study also found that white liberal politicians were likely to dumb down speeches aimed at minority audiences, while conservative politicians do not.

Nothing is more frustrating than a white liberal stereotyping blacks and minorities, & adopting a faux urban vibe in their speech pattern as soon as they see a black person.

Just stop it white liberals, it's gross.

Well, I'm a white guy and I've gotten plenty of tacit and backhanded request to "dumb down" my diction here on DP. It's the same diction and syntax I use when communicating with adults (other than my closest friends and family; they know me well enough that I can safely use far more informal syntax) anywhere -- there's no difference because, among other things, it's insulting to underestimate one's audience members, and thus to them condescend, by assuming they are less adept with, well, anything, including expression, than one is -- and that's not going to change.

I'll, for now, take your word regarding the verity of the observed behavior; however, I have nothing to say about the phenomenon.

ETA:
FWIW, the paper can be found here.
 
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The study also found that white liberal politicians were likely to dumb down speeches aimed at minority audiences, while conservative politicians do not.

Do conservatives give speeches to minority audiences?
 
Someone’s gonna say it.
 
I dumb down my language when speaking to Trump supporters. They're usually not college educated and are desperately uninformed.
 
Well, I'm a white guy and I've gotten plenty of tacit and backhanded request to "dumb down" my diction here on DP. It's the same diction and syntax I use when communicating with adults (other than my closest friends and family; they know me well enough that I can safely use far more informal syntax) anywhere -- there's no difference because, among other things, it's insulting to underestimate one's audience members, and thus to them condescend, by assuming they are less adept with, well, anything, including expression, than one is -- and that's not going to change.

I'll, for now, take your word regarding the verity of the observed behavior; however, I have nothing to say about the phenomenon.

ETA:
FWIW, the paper can be found here.

I have no problem with the language you use, it's your habit of formatting your replies to resemble a teacher grading a student's paper that's hard to respond to. On a forum such as this one, I may log in and have 20 replies in my inbox, with a limited amount of time to spend here per day. Concise, condensed replies are more likely to receive a reply back, in my experience.
 
From the paper the rubric article references:
Hypothesis:​
"White liberals are theoretically less racist and more motivated than conservatives to affiliate with Blacks, so they should not treat Blacks as less worthy of affiliation (less warm) than Whites. White conservatives, on the other hand, should be less motivated to affiliate interracially, so they would not bother to match themselves to their stereotypic expectancies about their outgroup partners in an attempt to get along. As such, we predict that White liberals (but not White conservatives) will present significantly less competence to a Black interaction partner than to a White one.

Inferences Drawn from Findings of Previously Validated Theories:​


  • [*=2]Whites lowest in RWA (i.e., values-based liberals) shouldbe most amenable to interacting with minorities, while those highest in RWA (i.e., values-basedconservatives) most avoid [non-white] contact.
    [*=2]Whites higher in SDO value the maintenance of group-based hierarchies, such that higher-statusgroups can remain on top, and lower-status groups can remain on the bottom. In contrast, Whiteslower in SDO express more altruistic social concern around outgroups, favoring a lesshierarchical and more egalitarian society. Therefore, while White hierarchy-based conservativesavoid various outgroup members, White hierarchy-based liberals should be less threatened byoutgroup members, possibly prompting strategies aimed at affiliation.


And what did the researchers find? While white liberals do a greater incidence of talking down to minorities than do conservatives, conservatives, for the most part, simply don't talk to minorities.

It's no wonder minorities, Blacks in particular, are pissed-off. On the one hand they are offered the choices of togetherness and a bit of underestimation, and on the other flat-out segregation. While neither option is ideal or what's desired, each is what is preponderantly presented. Given the two, it's no surprise minorities largely prefer liberals and their socio-politics.
 
I have no problem with the language you use, it's your habit of formatting your replies to resemble a teacher grading a student's paper that's hard to respond to. On a forum such as this one, I may log in and have 20 replies in my inbox, with a limited amount of time to spend here per day. Concise, condensed replies are more likely to receive a reply back, in my experience.
Red:
I'll take your word for that. I don't track who's griped about it; I'm merely aware folks have.
 
White Liberals Dumb Themselves Down When they Speak to Black People, a new Study Contends

To the extent white conservatives use diction and syntax similar to that of the GOP's current leader, there's no "down to" to go to when talking to anyone, other perhaps than ten-year-olds and younger children.
 
To the extent white conservatives use diction and syntax similar to that of the GOP's current leader, there's no "down to" to go to when talking to anyone, other perhaps than ten-year-olds and younger children.


Country good! good. believe me!
 
And what did the researchers find? While white liberals do a greater incidence of talking down to minorities than do conservatives, conservatives, for the most part, simply don't talk to minorities.

Reading more carefully the bit you quoted, it appears this is not quite correct. What the researchers seem to have found is that more value-based liberals tend to try to adapt their speech to the minorities to whom they are speaking. That's only "talking down" if you assume that minorities are beneath whites. Anyway, the idea is that the white liberals tended to try to signal through adapting their speech and actions that the minorities are worthy of affiliation with the whites. Conservatives, on the other hand, just tend to avoid minorities--signalling a lack of willingness to affiliate with them.
 
Reading more carefully the bit you quoted, it appears this is not quite correct. What the researchers seem to have found is that more value-based liberals tend to try to adapt their speech to the minorities to whom they are speaking. That's only "talking down" if you assume that minorities are beneath whites. Anyway, the idea is that the white liberals tended to try to signal through adapting their speech and actions that the minorities are worthy of affiliation with the whites. Conservatives, on the other hand, just tend to avoid minorities--signalling a lack of willingness to affiliate with them.

So that attempts to explain away the cringey behavior of white liberals in their dealings with minorities. But the study also analyzed 74 speeches given by white liberal politicians, and found that they too dumb down language when speaking to minorities, while Republicans don't.

The phenomenon is similar to the way adults dumb down language when speaking to small children.
 
I wasn't being serious.

In any case when Trump gives a speech to any audience it's impossible to dumb it down - he talks like a 3-year-old to everyone.

No thread is complete without Orange Man Bad.
 
No thread is complete without Orange Man Bad.

Orange man talk like 3 year old. Three year old talk funny. Me no complain

In all seriousness, in a thread about dumbed-down language how was trump's name not going to come up?
 
I dumb down my language when speaking to Trump supporters. They're usually not college educated and are desperately uninformed.
Truly, bless your heart, you don't have to do that... tho we do get mixed up a tad with y'alls double-triple-oops all nonsense speak.

Y'alls chants are often really really lame, too.

So that was supposed to be directed at us Trump supporters, eh? So dumbed down its literally stupid... super ready for your lib compatriots now.

So how would you bring that paragraph up to say, you know, your highest level?

I am interested to watch you make your pivot.
 
The whole progressive political strategy and most democratic party policies pertaining to blacks AND Latinos is patronizing and condescending! My God, they think that getting a damn picture ID card is above the innate capabilities of both groups! They severely dumb down entry exams required to become a police officer, because they say it's "racist" for them to be forced to take the exact same test given to people of EVERY OTHER racial and ethnic group! Many of them literally see blacks and Latinos as being too inherently mentally incompetent to accomplish some of the most rudimentary tasks, so they need MUCH lower standards across the board! Of course if you directly asked them about their true feelings on this, they would deny it. But as they say, "actions speak MUCH LOUDER than words", because 'the proof's in the pudding'!

Remember Bush's speech about "the soft bigotry of low expectations"? He was talking about yet another obvious example of this bias. He was talking about affirmative action in schools, colleges, workplaces etc, where they set your entry standards based on your race, and they have different test standards for several different races. They expect blacks to score much lower, and therefore their acceptance scores are much lower for the SAME TEST! If you are Asian or white, you must score much higher to be accepted.
 
To the extent white conservatives use diction and syntax similar to that of the GOP's current leader, there's no "down to" to go to when talking to anyone, other perhaps than ten-year-olds and younger children.

Of all people to invoke Orange Man Bad... Really Xelor, I thought you were above that. See post #19.
 
Reading more carefully the bit you quoted, it appears this is not quite correct. What the researchers seem to have found is that more value-based liberals tend to try to adapt their speech to the minorities to whom they are speaking. That's only "talking down" if you assume that minorities are beneath whites. Anyway, the idea is that the white liberals tended to try to signal through adapting their speech and actions that the minorities are worthy of affiliation with the whites. Conservatives, on the other hand, just tend to avoid minorities--signalling a lack of willingness to affiliate with them.

I don't know if your word "adaptation" means the same as the article's idea of "dumbing down." The article claims, rightly or wrongly, that liberals use simpler words talking to minorities. I have my doubts about whether one can prove that in any meaningful way. However, I have often felt that liberals were too conciliatory to radical liberals, particularly if they belong to minorities. Democrats go on and on about how Republicans should denounce Trump for saying stupid things, but did any Dems denounce the stupidities of Maxine Waters or Ocasio-Cortez?

I think conservatives seek out minorities sporadically, perhaps at crucial times when they think they see weakness in the liberal position. In my part of the country, I remember seeing newspaper pieces about Republicans making converts in black churches where a lot of liberals apparently feared-- or did not choose-- to tread.
 
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The whole progressive political strategy and most democratic party policies pertaining to blacks AND Latinos is patronizing and condescending! My God, they think that getting a damn picture ID card is above the innate capabilities of both groups! They severely dumb down entry exams required to become a police officer, because they say it's "racist" for them to be forced to take the exact same test given to people of EVERY OTHER racial and ethnic group! Many of them literally see blacks and Latinos as being too inherently mentally incompetent to accomplish some of the most rudimentary tasks, so they need MUCH lower standards across the board! Of course if you directly asked them about their true feelings on this, they would deny it. But as they say, "actions speak MUCH LOUDER than words", because 'the proof's in the pudding'!

Remember Bush's speech about "the soft bigotry of low expectations"? He was talking about yet another obvious example of this bias. He was talking about affirmative action in schools, colleges, workplaces etc, where they set your entry standards based on your race, and they have different test standards for several different races. They expect blacks to score much lower, and therefore their acceptance scores are much lower for the SAME TEST! If you are Asian or white, you must score much higher to be accepted.

There are assorted anecdotes about Republicans turning People of Color away from voting sites because of a lack of photo ID. I've never understood why actual Citizens of Color would have difficulty in getting this sort of ID, but apparently it's been some sort of stumbling block over the years, and has led to continuing accusations of voter suppression. Yet I don't get any sense that there was ever any imputation that People of Color weren't smart enough to get photo IDs. Are you, ModerationNow, aware of such imputations?
 
The study also found that white liberal politicians were likely to dumb down speeches aimed at minority audiences, while conservative politicians do not.

Nothing is more frustrating than a white liberal stereotyping blacks and minorities, & adopting a faux urban vibe in their speech pattern as soon as they see a black person.

Just stop it white liberals, it's gross.

Sarah Palin dumbed herself down and talked very folksy to her base. I do the same when I am dealing with rural white people, or the Trump base. They use words like ain't a lot and don't believe in science. :lol:
 
Wapo reported this? Do pigs fly now, or is it just an illusion? Conclusion, Cydney Dupree and Susan Fiske must be a white conservative Trumpist.
 
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