# Are better educated people less racist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 5, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-better-educated-people-less-racist/179808 "2003-06-05T13:15:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Philly\_Style](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/977dab/32.png) [@Philly\_Style](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philly_Style)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-better-educated-people-less-racist/179808/41 "2003-06-07T13:06:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chiefgnome \* > \*\*There is evidence to support that more educated people are less likely to consider themselves racist. This is a Eurobarometer poll from 1997 that asked people how racist they considered themselves on a scale of 1-10 (10 being very racist, 1 not at all) > > \*\* The problem with such polls are that most racists do not consider themselves racist, the merely feel they “see through the media hype” and are more realistic then others. Of course polling itself has a major drawback. You only get the opinions of the sort of person who will respond to pollsters. ---
**Author:** ![lucwarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@lucwarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucwarm)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-better-educated-people-less-racist/179808/42 "2003-06-07T13:26:18Z")
Really the way to study this would be to devise a psychological test where the subjects don’t know they are being tested for racism. Simply asking people how racist they are is practically worthless. If you judge people by their actions not their words – where they choose to live, where they send their kids to school, etc. – it appears that there’s a lot of racism out there, regardless of level of education. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-better-educated-people-less-racist/179808/43 "2003-06-07T16:03:05Z")
The IAT is a test that definately cannot be cheated on and is supposedly testing for racism. Its garnered a bit of criticism but not many other tests can claim uncheatability. The way it works is that you sit at a computer terminal with two buttons. The computer pops up a picture of either a white face or a black face (or old face/young face or gay couple/straight couple etc) and a word that is either happy or sad. Your meant to press one button if it is white/black OR happy/sad and another if it is not. The theory is, if you are racist, your reaction times for the white OR happy and black OR sad times will be faster than the black OR happy and white OR sad times. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-better-educated-people-less-racist/179808/44 "2003-06-07T16:45:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shalmanese \* > \*\*The way it works is that you sit at a computer terminal with two buttons. The computer pops up a picture of either a white face or a black face (or old face/young face or gay couple/straight couple etc) and a word that is either happy or sad. Your meant to press one button if it is white/black OR happy/sad and another if it is not. The theory is, if you are racist, your reaction times for the white OR happy and black OR sad times will be faster than the black OR happy and white OR sad times. \*\* Interesting. I found a set of tests online. [https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/](https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/) Since I don’t have any idea how the tests could possibly be skewed, I can’t say how accurate these tests are. I found my results to be unsurprising, though: slight preference for old relative to young (like 4% of test takers) moderate association between science and Male relative to Female (14%) moderate preference for African American relative to European American (4%) moderate preference for George W. Bush relative to Franklin D. Roosevelt Julie ---
**Author:** ![novemberromeo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@novemberromeo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/novemberromeo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-better-educated-people-less-racist/179808/45 "2003-06-07T16:53:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoe \* > \*\*Having college degrees certainly doesn’t mean that you are less racist. The most bigoted man that I know is a graduate of Dartmouth and a Northerner transplanted to the South. > \*\* WHOA!! now we are equating schooling with education! This is a very popular misnomer and its about time the authorities put this straight! Schooling has nothing to do with education. Schools/colleges/universities are places where data is available in a structured manner (this could be spawned into its own debate!!), its upto the person to educate himself with this data. IMO Mr. Educated is less racist than Dr. Ignoramus because the former is more qualified to analyse a situation and arrive to a un-biased judgement than the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Netbrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71e660/32.png) [@Netbrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Netbrian)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-better-educated-people-less-racist/179808/46 "2003-06-08T01:52:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by obo \* > \*\*I dont think it makes any difference at all, after all the Japanese are very well educated as a nation, and they are probably the most racist nation in the world as a whole. Though i do think racism is more overt at the lower end of the social spectrum. Thats on both sides. \*\* I’d like you to back this up. I’m not sure the Japanese are the people being racist here. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-better-educated-people-less-racist/179808.md?page=2)