DISC 11 REPLIES

SAMPLE 1: MAHKHA

I agree with your perspective, especially in the first case that participants are unaware of their negative attitudes. They develop secondary dislike after learning that the straight man interacted with the gay man. Also, they are not personally acquainted with the gay man, and therefore, their dislike for the straight gentleman is derived from unjustified discomfort. Your approach towards the second case of exposure to homophobic epithets was an alternative learning point for me. People often develop attitudes from what they have heard about a social group without interacting personally. Thus, as you correctly indicated, exposure to stereotyped individuals is necessary to disrupt the biases.

SAMPLE 2: CINDARR

I also concluded that the bias for the first case was implicit. The negative attitudes were based on the assumption that the gay and straight men were friends. They subconsciously expressed their discomfort towards their association. If the straight and gay men were to be perceived as strangers, the attitudes of the study's participants would have been more neutral. In addressing the priming stimuli, I guess you wanted to say that changing our environment to the one that accepts everyone. Our environment significantly shapes the attitudes we develop towards others.

SAMPLE 3: LIASAG

I guess I understood the cases differently, as forms of implicit bias. From the definition of implicit and explicit bias, the participants' attitudes towards the straight man were unconscious, thus making it a case of implicit bias. Explicit bias occurs when individuals are aware of their prejudices towards another group. The second case involving homophobic epithets qualifies to be explicit bias. I particularly like the idea you presented on practicing mindfulness in each situation. People can learn to control their attitudes. Also, exposure to people with different sexualities can mitigate people's discomfort towards gay. You did great in suggesting ideas of disrupting biases.