Análise do comportamento e preconceito racial: uma história de pesquisa

Abstract

This thesis investigates anti-Black racial bias as symbolic responding organized by social, cultural, and historical contingencies, proposing an integrated research agenda that combines conceptual analysis, evaluation of explicit and implicit measures, and experimental intervention studies. Chapter 1 presents the theoretical framework, defining racial prejudice as relational responding and discussing conceptual and methodological challenges in its measurement and modification. Chapter 2 provides a critical review of empirical research on anti-Black racial bias within Behavior Analysis, identifying gaps that guide the subsequent experimental studies. Chapter 3 focuses on the evaluation of racial bias measures. Study 2, conducted with children aged 8 to 10 years, examined the temporal stability of an explicit valence measure (Likert scale) and the Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST), an implicit measure, using a repeated-measures design, demonstrating high stability and sensitivity of the FAST to anti-Black racial bias. Study 3, also with children aged 8 to 10 years, employed a multimodal analysis of racial prejudice, identifying a substantial gender effect characterized by the devaluation of Black women, as well as contextual variation in social preference, indicating contextual control of relational responding. Chapter 4 presents intervention studies with children based on the stimulus equivalence paradigm. Study 4, with children aged 8 to 10 years, replicated procedures described by Mizael et al. (2016, 2022), demonstrating the formation of equivalence classes between Black faces and positive stimuli, with reductions in negative relations and valence differences, albeit with limited generalization and social desirability effects. Study 5, with 6-year-old children, showed greater convergence across measures and partial generalization, though without stable maintenance for all participants. In Study 6, using word-based equivalence procedures and longitudinal follow-up, produced more robust generalization effects and evidence of social validity, although changes occurred gradually and heterogeneously, with varying patterns of relational flexibility and resistance to change. A common finding across Experiments 3, 4, and 6 was that the absence of equivalence class formation was associated with the absence of change in racial bias measures. Chapter 5 presents adult study. Study 7, conducted with 116 White Irish adults, evaluated the effects of different FAST-based training configurations on implicit and explicit measures, including a shooter task based on the Police Officer’s Dilemma Task, the Modern Racism Scale, and facial valence ratings. The stereotype-consistent condition exacerbated bias relative to the control condition, whereas the counter-stereotypical and flexibility conditions produced mitigating effects, with the former being the most effective. Overall, this dissertation contributes to a systematic research agenda on anti-Black racial bias, demonstrating that behavioral procedures can reorganize previously established classes while also delineating the possibilities and limits of modifying racial relational control across development and adulthood.