But this case never sat well Tessa CharlesworthAssistant Professor of Administration and Organizations in Kellogg. It seemed to her that “even if they are” bowel emotions “, they must come from somewhere – and that somewhere our culture is.
In a study of more than 1.4 million people in 33 countries, Charlesworth has confirmed that people’s automatic feelings about certain issues can indeed change over time-some times in combination with their more external, controlled emotions, and sometimes in contrast to them.
Worked with Benedek kurdi at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Patrick At Harvard University to examine people’s attitudes on age, body weight, sexual orientation, race and skin tone for an 11 -year period (from 2009 to 2019). In each of these social categories, they found that the clear attitudes of people have become less negative about the non -dominant group. With age, for example, people have become less likely to say that they prefer the dominant (“young”) to the non -dominant (“old”) group.
Changes in the feelings of the intestinal of people – or the tacit stops – but were more varied. They became less negative in terms of sexual orientation (less pre-visual/anti-gae), but more negative about skin tone (more than skin light/anti-air) and remained about the same for age, body weight and breed.
On the one hand, “there is an optimistic story that needs to be told here,” says Charlesworth, showing the general reduction of explicit prejudice and the possibility of a tacit stop in change. On the other hand, the difference between explicit and implied postures can serve as a reminder that prejudice is far from “healed”. There is constant prejudice and polarization of attitudes around the world, perhaps especially among people who keep extremist beliefs (whose attitudes may not have been collected in the current study).
“Both of these things can be true: We can be optimistic that the average person in these 33 countries really wants to live in a more efficient society,” he says, “and we can also recognize that the behavior that discriminations remain remains and there are still horrible things done by extreme communities.”
A positive trend
The study draws from previous investigation Charlesworth conducted with Mahzarin BanajiIn Harvard, in which they found that the tacit stops for sexual orientation, race and skin tone had changed dramatically in the US from 2007 to 2020.
The findings prompted Charlesworth and his colleagues to explore whether these widespread changes to silent attitudes were unique to the US or other countries and how changes may differ around the world.
To this end, Charlesworth took advantage of the answers of more than 1.4 million people from 33 countries from 2009 to 2019 in two types of research, a measurement of explicit behaviors and other tested tested attitudes. Both focused on people’s preferences for a dominant and non-dominant group in the following categories: sexual orientation (straight against lesbian/homosexuals), tribe (white versus black), skin tone (lightweight and dark).
For explicit postures, people self-referred to on a seven-point scale. Those who had a strong preference for the dominant team in a category gave themselves a “7” rating, while those who had a strong preference for the non -dominant group gave the score of “1.”
At the beginning of the study period, people favored the dominant group throughout the boat. However, during the 11 years, preferences moved to neutrality in each category: the average stretch rating in all countries decreased by 43 % for sexual orientation, 39 % for race, 28 % for skin tone, 20 % for age and 18 % for body weight.
In other words, there has been a tendency to less obvious prejudice – corresponding to the downward trend in the US, although it generally moves at a slower pace.
“This change in the sea to explicit bias tells us that something is happening on an international scale to change the rules of what we will say and consciously feel internationally, the rules are against the expression of prejudice,” says Charlesworth.
However, the trend in implied attitudes was not so consistent.
To measure people’s tacit attitudes, researchers relied on the test of implicit correlation, a time work in which people quickly combine words and images in such a way that, perhaps without knowing, they indicate their unconscious preferences. In age assessment, for example, people had to quickly combine positive or negative words alongside images representing old or young people.
In all categories, the only one who saw a significant reduction in tacit bias was the sexual orientation, which decreased by 36 % – a significant decrease, although almost half of the change in US data. Indirect bias was not moved for some of the other categories – only 4 % for race, 7 % for age and 8 % for body weight. There was also a 20 % increase for skin prejudice.
When the researchers mapped their findings, the contrast was clear. Explicit behaviors have declined almost evenly, such as “a stroke, with every category in every country going down,” says Charlesworth. Sacred attitudes, however, could move in any direction such as “a more complex painting”.
When beliefs (no) are aligned
The striking discrepancy between the self -reference (explicit) attitudes of people and the feelings of the bowel (silent posture) reinforces the idea that what people say They believe that it is not always aligned with what they may feel beneath the surface – the diameters they either do not know or do not want to share.
Explicit behaviors seem to follow social rules mainly: as prejudice compensation weakens over time, the expression of people’s prejudice against a particular category. On the contrary, Charlesworth notes, implied behaviors could come from subtle but repetitive reports to “daily experiences”, such as media narratives and social discourse on individual categories.
With the tone of the skin, for example, the increasing acceptance of humans by the darker and lighter tones of the skin that are aligned with the general disapproval of society for explicit prejudice. “People say,” We are more tolerant. It is just as good to be darker skin, as it is that they are lighter skin, “says Charlesworth.” But it was shocking that, silently, these feelings of the intestine became more and more negative. ” At a time when the rhetoric of fears of a so -called “crisis of immigrants” has begun to dominate the titles in most of the 33 countries of this study (especially in Western Europe). Underlying beliefs and social rhetoric are rooting, it can be difficult to change to a meaningful level.
Not only the feelings, but also the beliefs
And yet Charlesworth and her colleagues have learned that there is even more shade in the picture: not only can they silence attitudes About changing the breed or skin tone, but implicit stereotypes for them can also change.
To one separate study Posted in 2025, Charlesworth, Banaji, Kirsten MoreHouse; Thierry devos It was discovered that people’s beliefs and stereotypes of “who is American” have changed significantly over time. They were based on a similar set of data of about 660,000 people, who completed similar types of research as in the previous study. They found that the silent stereotype that “the American is equivalent to white and Asian equals foreign”, weakens over time, reducing by 41 % from 2007 to 2023. The saying was moved at a similar rate, reducing by 47 %.
“People often say that stereotypes have a core of truth or that they are even regarded as precise and events,” Charlesworth says, “so is a tall bar to show that even these stereotypes can change.” Data from this new study shows that “even these stereotypes, or beliefs of the core of truth, can change over time”.
By putting the work
Although research has revealed clear trends on attitudes between the wider population, Charlesworth acknowledges that changes in an area do not necessarily apply everywhere.
“People in different countries or sites or even offices and workplaces may experience different types of prejudices,” he says. For example, while the unconscious prejudice for skin tone fell to the US, increasing uniquely in other countries.
In addition, the direction in which the change of attitudes is not stable. There is no guarantee that the general positive trends in recent years will continue. And it is also not true that things “will inevitably worsen for the coming years, even after a big event,” says Charlesworth. What matters is the “everyday, usual actions and social rhetoric that can make a new ecosystem”, which Charlesworth hopes will help maintain positive trends.
In many ways, it is up to leaders to lead the behavior they would like to see. “So often in the business community we believe that unconscious prejudices are inevitable, rooted or unchanged,” says Charlesworth. “But now we know that this is simply not true.
Much of this project implies careful how people depict and discuss ideas or topics. Views of body weight, for example, have shifted with the recent rise of GLP-1 militants such as OZEMPIC and similar drugs, which have caused a discussion of how much weight and obesity are the result of personal choices against medical condition. How the media and medical professionals – and the general public – that ending up the debate about these drugs are likely to shape the perception of society about body weight for years to come.
“The change is about shifting media rhetoric, shifting fine reports and the shift of structural factors,” says Charlesworth, “is to truly know your language, the way you connect words together to your company’s statements.
