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No two disagree that all humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens, only a few deny this, but there is a gap between what people believe to be true and what they believe deep down. A new study published (Monday) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A team of researchers from Harvard and Tufts Universities collected data from more than 60,000 people who participated in a series of experiments to test their prejudices.

When those included in the study were asked direct, open-ended questions, the majority of them believed that all people, both white and non-white, belonged to the human race, the French press reported.

But the intentional exposure tests used by the researchers showed that whites more systematically associate human traits with their racial group than animals.

Black, Asian, and Hispanic participants showed no such preference, associating their group and white people equally with human characteristics.

“The most important thing in my view is that we are still confronted in new forms with concepts that have been around for centuries,” Harvard researcher Kirsten Morehouse told AFP.

Throughout history, the dehumanization of certain ethnic groups has been used as an excuse to treat them differently, sometimes resulting in genocide.

* “Indirect link” test.

The study was based on a test called “implicit association” that was invented in the late nineties of the twentieth century and has been widely used ever since.

“Implicit correlation” is performed on a computer and consists of testing positive or negative connotations and the strength of association between two concepts, such as correlation between blacks and whites or correlation between homosexuals.

The idea is that a person’s quick Sanghatis are more deeply embedded in their mind than slower Sanghatis.

Researchers point out that this type of testing can reveal prejudices that a person may not be aware of.

In total, 61 percent of white participants easily associated whites with words associated with humans (“person”, “man”, “humanity”…), and black people with words associated with animals (“creatures”, “monsters”). ..).

This percentage rose to 69 percent when whites were asked to compare their cohort to Asians or Latinos.

The results were similar for everyone regardless of their age, education levels and religion, but conservatives and men were more likely to associate with “whites” and “humans.”

* Social Hierarchy

Non-Whites did not show a bias in favor of their group compared to Whites.

However, they associated whites with more human traits than they associated other minority ethnic groups with these traits.

Kirsten Morehouse believes that this result can be explained by the economic and social dominance of whites in America. 85 percent of study participants live here (8.5 percent are of Western European descent).

According to Morehouse, while the results of similar tests may not impress some people who don’t notice their prejudices, being aware of them is the first step in combating them.