Tracking attitudes and stereotypes across history

There is an old adage (from Mark Twain) that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” In this talk, I will review a collection of empirical results showing how the continued “rhyming” of history continues to ring true when it comes to the long-term patterns of attitudes and stereotypes that we hold about social groups. That is, despite the perception that attitudes change in the short-term (e.g., over a few hours or days), the much longer-term histories of attitudes often reveal striking persistence. Drawing on big data from millions of respondents collected over 18 years, as well as millions of books and newspapers published over 200 years, I will discuss the evidence for (and possible mechanisms) of long-term persistence and change in social group attitudes and stereotypes. These findings help to contextualize ongoing debates about whether, and if so how, it may be possible to durably change our collective attitudes towards more equity, inclusion, and fairness for all social groups.

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