Drop in bias
Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who runs a website that measures implicit bias using similar test, has also observed a small drop in bias in the 700,000 visitors to the site since January 2007, which might be explained by Obama's rise to popularity. However, his preliminary results suggest that change will be much slower coming than Plant's results suggest.
Talking honestly
"People now have the opportunity of expressing support for Obama every day," says Daniel Effron at Stanford University in California. "Our research arouses the concern that people may now be more likely to raise negative views of African Americans." On the other hand, he says, it may just encourage people to talk more honestly about their feelings regarding race issues, which may not be such a bad thing.
Another part of the study suggests far more is at stake than the mere expression of views. The Obama effect may have a negative side. Just one week after Obama was elected president, participants were less ready to support policies designed to address racial inequality than they had been two weeks before the election. Huge obstacles
It could, of course, also be that Obama's success helps people to forget that a disproportionate number of black Americans still live in poverty and face huge obstacles when trying to overcome these circumstances. "Barack Obama's family is such a salient (出色的) image, we generalise it and fail to see the larger picture—that there's injustice in every aspect of American life," says Cheryl Kaiser of the University of Washington in Seattle. Those trying to address issues of racial inequality need to constantly remind people of the inequalities that still exist to counteract the Obama's effect, she says.
Though Plant's findings were more positive, she too warns against thinking that racism and racial inequalities are no longer a problem. "The last thing I want is for people to think everything's solved."
These findings do not only apply to Obama, or even just to race. They should hold for any role model in any country. "There's no reason we wouldn't have seen the same effect on our views of women if Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin had been elected," says Effron. So the election of a female leader might have a downside for other women.
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Beyond race
We also don't yet know how long the Obama effect—both its good side and its bad—will last.Political sentiment is notoriously changeable: What if things begin to go wrong for Obama, and his popularity slumps?
And what if Americans become so familiar with having Obama as their president that they stop considering his race altogether? "Over time he might become his own entity," says Plant. This might seem like the ultimate defeat for racism, but ignoring the race of certain select individuals—a phenomenon that psychologists call subtyping—also has an insidious (隐伏的) side. "We think it happens to help people preserve their beliefs, so they can still hold on to the previous stereotypes." That could turn out to be the cruellest of all the twists to the Obama effect.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
1. How did Erin White feel upon seeing Barack Obama's victory in the election?
A) Excited. B) Victorious. C) Anxious. D) Relieved.
2. Before the election, Erin White has been haunted by the question of whether _____.
A) she could obtain her MBA degree
B) she could go as far as she wanted in life
C) she was overshadowed by her white peers
D) she was really an achiever as a student
3. What is the focus of Ashby Plant's study?
A) Racist sentiments in America.
B) The power of role models.
C) Personality traits of successful blacks.
D) The dual character of African Americans.
4. In their experiments, Ray Friedman and his colleagues found that ______.
A) blacks and whites behaved differently during the election
B) whites' attitude towards blacks has dramatically changed
C) Obama's election has eliminated the prejudice against blacks
D) Obama's success impacted blacks' performance in language tests
5. What do Brian Nosek's preliminary results suggest?
A) The change in bias against blacks is slow in coming.
B) Bias against blacks has experienced an unusual drop.
C) Website visitor's opinions are far from being reliable.
D) Obama's popularity may decline as time passes by.
6. A negative side of the Obama effect is that ______.
A) more people have started to criticise President Obama's racial policies
B) relations between whites and African Americans may become tense again
C) people are now less ready to support policies addressing racial inequality
D) white people are likely to become more critical of African Americans
7. Cheryl Kaiser holds that people should be constantly reminded that ______.
A) Obama's success is sound proof of black's potential
B) Obama is but a rare example of black's excellence
C) racial inequality still persists in American society
D) blacks still face obstacles in political participation
8. According to Effron, if Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin had been elected, there would also have been a negative effect on ______.
9. It is possible that the Obama effect will be short-lived if there is a change in people's ______.
10. The worst possible aspect of the Obama effect is that people could ignore his race altogether and continue to hold on to their old racial ______.
Part III Listening Comprehension (35 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.