Australian Study Finds 'Turban Effect' Fueling Islamophobia?
A study from the University of South Wales in Australia has found that people find turbans menacing, and they've used video games as a vector to measure this predisposition to fear turban-wearers.
Research volunteers played a computer game that showed apartment balconies on which different figures appeared, some wearing Muslim-style turbans or hijabs and others bare-headed. They were told to shoot at the targets carrying guns and spare those who were unarmed, with points awarded accordingly.
People were much more likely to shoot Muslim-looking characters - men or women - even if they were carrying an innocent item instead of a weapon, the researchers found
While we don't yet know what game was used in the study, it's hardly a stretch to assume that if you're playing a video game that involves conflict in the Middle East, you're most likely deep into "shooting people wearing turbans" mode. I can't imagine that such context doesn't muddy the waters of testing for implicit association.
That said, the Canadian Islamic Congress responded with a level head:
I'm hoping that Canadian Muslims one day become invisible. As such, Canadians will treat them like any others... [The research] does confirm our biggest fear that there is discrimination and prejudice within our society, and unfortunately people don't recognize it or don't admit it. Sometimes they really don't know that it does exist.
But at the end of the day, I rest my weary eyes on Jennifer Saunders' "character turban" and smile. As long as humor trumps fear, we've got a chance.
Islamophobia? Video Game Study Suggests "Turban Effect" [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 1 July 2008
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: australia, islamophobia, muslims, turban effect
Name: Dave
To take a stab at guessing the game I would say a moded CounterStrike.
And whether or not implicit association can be claimed depends on whether the shooting scenario really involved conflict in the middle east. From the scant description, it sounds like Hogan's alley.
I work in a psychology research lab that does work very similar to this. The programs used in these studies are called computer games for lack of a better name, but that's kind of misleading. They are really more like powerpoint programs that measure reaction time to the nearest millisecond. Mainstream video games aren't used because of the point that you bring up (immersion in the game's reality influencing results).
Typically, the programs are very simple, and look like this. A picture is put on the screen and the participant is instructed to press one of two buttons as fast as he can. One button is a "don't shoot" button and the other is a "shoot" button. After the person responds, a new picture is put up. This is repeated many times to get an idea of the individual's reaction time and relative frequency of errors.
You know I'd call bullshit on this (games /= reality) but the only person I know who wears a turban is the guy who runs the Dick Smith Electronics store in the city (nice guy, helped me pick out an mp3 player) he's tall, big and dark with a beard and I admit he looks rather menacing to me for a seller of electronic equipment.
"there is discrimination and prejudice within our society"
Stop the presses.