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Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
Good Lord, people.

Are we really still in
this much denial, as a country?

Still?
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Magister
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
If I'm reading the abstract correctly, they showed two identical photographs to the test subjects, one of which had been manipulated and Obama supporters more often chose the lighter version as being undoctored.

IOW: Without accounting for the accuracy of their picks, it was surmised that Obama supporters saw him more light-skinned than those who opposed him.

I guess this might be as accurate or perhaps a little more than the Harvard Implicit Test, but without reading the entire survey, I'm still left with a few questions.
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Edited by Magister at 11/24/09 3:34 PM Magister was starred Magister was unstarred

beercheck
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
Edit: Never mind..
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Edited by beercheck at 11/24/09 1:42 PM beercheck was starred beercheck was unstarred

ronniedobbs
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
I think Ben Smith's first point is the most salient: why did the study not account for the race of the participants? Controlling for "racial attitudes" is not the same thing as accounting for race. Am I supposed to believe that Obama detractors of all races darken his likeness? Really?
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Edited by ronniedobbs at 11/24/09 1:25 PM ronniedobbs was starred ronniedobbs was unstarred

thesciencegirl
11/24/09

@ronniedobbs: racism without racists -- I see it so often. We say things like "People show bias" when a real analysis of the data would tell us which people show that bias.
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Evie Havok
11/24/09

@ronniedobbs: Because we know *which* people would be shown to have more of these racial biases (starts with a w ends with an e). To clue in those people still in the dark: it's not minorities doing this.
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shoroko
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
I don't doubt their conclusions, but it makes me tetchy that they used three different photos. I get that they had to, but I kind of wish they'd gotten another sample group and switched which photos were darkened and lightened, as well.

But I don't think it would change the outcome. I just prefer reducing variables as much as possible, especially with something subjective like "most representative."
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thesciencegirl
11/24/09

@shoroko: They used darkened and lightened version of each photo (so the same photo was directly compared) -- read the methods section of the PNAS article. The photos pictured are just examples.
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shoroko
11/24/09

@thesciencegirl: Ah, sorry, that makes more sense. I'd read an article about the study yesterday and it hadn't clarified that.
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morninggloria
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
If this is true, then why doesn't Brother Ali sell more albums than Jay-Z?
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HarpMadness
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
I would add, too, that the lightening or darkening of an image does not only reflect the feelings of the person(s) doing the alteration, but also their perceptions of what that would mean to their audience. When Obama's opponents darken an image of him, they, I assume, figure that it would make their audience react negatively to the photo due to their own racism.
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rodmanstreet
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
And we moderates are clearly just oblivious - I didn't realize those three pictures were an example, with a scale from lighter on the left to darker on the right, until I started reading the linked article.

But then, I'm color blind. I don't see race. People tell me I'm white and I believe them because I own a lot of Jimmy Buffett albums.
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Dodgergirl
11/24/09

@rodmanstreet:
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Penny
11/24/09

In reply to Supporters Lighten Obama's Image; Detractors Darken It
"But does this study prove anything we didn't learn during the OJ Simpson trial?"

Like that the media are assholes? Nope.

But, OJ is an asshole too.

Latoya, it's interesting that you bring up the sinister interpretation from a cloaked or shadowed figure. I would have never picked up on this simply because it is, as you said, too entangled in race.
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