Using Relational Frame Theory to Examine Racial Prejudice: A Tool for Educators and an Appeal for Future Research

Abstract

Canadian colleges and universities have begun to acknowledge systemic and institutionalized racism by developing equity statements and policies in support of diverse and accessible learning environments. To encourage these equitable statements and policies as actionable, analysis of racial bias and methods for reducing its occurrence are warranted. In this article, literature on relational frame theory in the context of racial prejudice is reviewed, including treatment approaches shown to be less effective and those that appear promising. The integration of a functional contextual approach into pedagogy is considered with an aim to better understand the origins of racial prejudice. Finally, recommendations on the examination of personal and sociocultural bias among educators and their students are provided.

More and more, colleges and universities in Canada are engaging in policy creation to bring about greater racial and gender equality in their organizations. However, many Canadian communities and campuses continue to face racialized and religious prejudice (Shihipar, 2017). For example, between 2012 and 2015, hate crimes against Muslims in Canada increased by 253% (Minsky, 2017). Thus, exploring the prevailing contingencies that appear to promote and maintain prejudice despite an assumed collective awareness of the resulting harm appears warranted because this knowledge may guide educators to create more equitable spaces and produce content that better reflects the histories and experiences of a more diverse student body.

Stangor (2014) defined prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination by characterizing differences across attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. In particular, prejudice is defined as an unjustifiable negative attitude directed toward a group or a member of a group. A stereotype is defined as both positive and/or negative beliefs that individuals hold about the characteristics of a group, whereas discrimination, as it is used in this article, is the negative behavior directed toward members of groups. A functional contextual perspective of racial prejudice may be defined as behaviors without direct exposure to contingencies of reinforcement, as a result of responding to one stimulus in terms of another stimulus (Matsuda et al., 2020). When these constructs are experienced, individuals are affected in a variety of ways. For example, being stereotyped and having had past experiences with prejudice may negatively affect academic performance (Shapiro & Neuberg, 2007).

Prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination are conceptionally learned behaviors that are selected and influenced by operant and respondent processes. Therefore, when considering school-aged children and adolescents, it is important to understand the occurrence and impact of these constructs on children and adolescents within the school setting. For example, Halberstadt et al. (2018) discovered that students in elementary schools in the United States were treated differentially by race. In particular, Black children were (1) overly identified for special education, which was later found to be unnecessary; (2) twice as likely than white children to receive referrals for discipline; and (3) four times as likely than white children to be suspended or expelled for minor infractions, suggesting that Black children were not receiving the same supports and resources as white children. In addition, Black children were 2.5 to 10.4 times as likely to agree with their teacher’s underestimates of their abilities than their white peers (Halberstadt et al., 2018). Likewise, results of a meta-analysis of 34 studies that evaluated elementary and secondary school teachers' implicit attitudes towards students from different social groups found that teachers' implicit attitudes favored nonmarginalized groups (Pit-ten Cate & Glock, 2019). That is, response times indicated that teachers associated marginalized groups with negative evaluations significantly more often than nonmarginalized groups. Of note, this meta-analysis revealed that the countries (i.e., Europe, Asia, and the United States) all produced similar results, indicating that teachers' implicit attitudes were universal. These negative implicit biases towards marginalized groups must be considered not only when addressing expectations of students and student pathways, but also when providing teaching materials, introducing varied role models within curricula, and providing an inclusive learning environment.

Although the above research discusses the prevalence and risks associated with racial prejudice, it does not attempt to understand why it is occurring or strategies of changing it. Literature in derived relational responding provides insight into the development of prejudice, and how teachers may identify their own implicit biases and helps to identify strategies to explore how racial prejudice can be addressed within educational institutions. This critical insight provides a structure to better address the social harm of racial prejudice within these important institutions.

Relational Frame Theory

Functional contextualism, a philosophy of science, suggests that behavior can be understood in relation to the context in which the behavior takes place. To understand the influence of that behavior, the function of behavior must first be understood. Functional contextualism serves as the basis for relational frame theory (RFT; Hayes et al., 2001). RFT, described as a third-wave behavior science (Sandoz et al., 2020), is a psychological theory of human language and cognition. It suggests that respondent, operant, and observational learning are not complete without considering derived relational responding. Derived means acquiring behaviors without direct exposure to reinforcement. Relational means responding to one stimulus in terms of another. For example, if an individual learns that sriracha chicken wings are spicier than barbecue wings. And a waitress indicates that “holy cow” wings are spicier than sriracha wings, this person will relate “holy cow” as very spicy. The topography of a cow or being holy is not related but rather these words are arbitrary. RFT suggests that the emergence of language requires the development of a relational responding repertoire (a collection of responding to one stimulus in terms of another stimulus) that is socially reinforced (Barnes-Holmes et al., 2000). RFT explains humans' capacity for symbolic language that differentiates humans from nonhuman animals. Because of this, humans have the capacity to derive complex relations under relevant contextual cues such as difference and equivalence, before and after (Hayes & Barnes, 1997; Roche & Barnes, 1997; Whelan & Barnes-Holmes, 2004), and emotional responses such as fear or hate (Amd et al., 2013; Roche et al., 2000).

The concept of derived stimulus relations came from Sideman’s research on stimulus equivalence related to teaching children to read (Holmes et al., 2004). Sidman and Tailby (1982) described stimulus equivalence as requiring reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. Reflexivity occurs when an individual relates a stimulus to itself. Symmetry occurs when the relation between stimuli is reversible, such that if an individual is trained that a = b, the individual derives that b = a. Transitivity is when an individual is trained that a = b and b = c, thus, resulting in the individual deriving that a = c. In other words, people can learn that things are the same without explicitly being taught this. Inspired by Sidman and other researchers studying stimulus equivalence, the theory (and subsequent research) of RFT was developed.

Researchers in RFT suggest that stimulus equivalence can be considered a generalized relational operant (Hayes et al., 2001). Thus, a history of reinforced exemplars (stimulus matches) generates patterns of generalized relational response units called relational frames. RFT suggests that relational responding comes under the control of arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR) under relevant contextual cues (not formal or physical properties; Fryling et al., 2020). These contextual cues may include the physical environment, formal attributes of objects or things, topics of conversation, names, or nonverbal communication. For example, the spoken word "bat" may have a very different meaning in the context of a conversation about baseball versus Halloween. Relational frames have three properties: mutual entailment, combinatorial entailment, and transformation of stimulus functions (Barnes-Homes et al., 2018). Mutual entailment refers to bidirectional responding (i.e., A is related to B, then B is related to A), which may explain why a child with cynophobia (i.e., fear of dogs) engages in escape behavior when the parents ask the child if he wants a dog for lunch. The word dog, as a tail wagging best friend, and dog, as a tasty lunch item, has no formal similarities, however through training mutual entailment can occur. The term “mutual entailment” encompasses symmetrical responding but also refers to responding that is not strictly symmetrical. For example, if A is better than B, then B is worse than A. According to RFT, stimulus equivalence is an example of the relational frame of coordination, and the properties of stimulus equivalence such as reflexivity and symmetry are instances of AARR (Holmes et al., 2004).

Combining known relations (two or more) to derive a new relation is called combinatorial entailment (e.g., A is related to B and B is related to C, then A is related to C). Within RFT, combinatorial entailment encompasses transitivity but also refers to relations that cannot be described as transitive (Holmes et al., 2004). Using the same reference as above, if an individual is trained that A is better than B, and B is better than C, an individual may derive that A is better than C. It may be easier to think in terms of objects rather than letters. If an individual learns that grapefruit is better for you than granola bars, and granola bars are better for you than chocolate bars, then an individual may derive that grapefruit is better for you than chocolate bars and chocolate bars are worse for you than grapefruits.

Transformation of stimulus function is when the stimulus function of one stimulus without training, alters another stimulus, independent of the shared functions that define the class (Dymond & Rehfeldt, 2000). For example, a girl is taught that the word “woman” represents her gender and the printed word “woman” on a door indicates which room to enter when she needs to use the washroom. The girl subsequently learns frames of coordination such as the printed word “girls,” “dames,” “madame,” “mesdames.” As a result, when the girl requires the use of a washroom, doors with these words may set the occasion for responding to access reinforcement. If a traumatic event occurred in a room with the word “woman” on it, all stimuli in that class may become fear eliciting. Thus, a room with “girls” on the door may elicit fear and the girl will engage in behaviors that in the past have allowed her to escape the girls bathroom such as going home to use a bathroom. Dougher et al. (2014) demonstrated that when one member of a trained equivalence class was exposed to electric shock, all stimuli in that class became fear eliciting, supporting the fact that function transfer could occur in respondent behavior.

Another important feature of RFT is that it provides a model for category formation in which not all relations among stimuli need to be directly trained (Dixon et al., 2017). Multiple exemplar training consists of presenting a set of stimuli that sample the range of target stimuli and response topographies. Each exemplar consists of a sequence of trials during which additional stimuli, such as "Give me" or “What is that?” correlate with reinforcement. Training continues until responding not only comes under the control of the stimulus features present in the exemplars used during training but also when the presentation of novel stimuli that share these features occasion the same response. Multiple exemplar training has been used to teach numerous skills including sharing (Marzullo-Kerth et al., 2011), naming (Greer et al., 2007), and imitation (Young et al., 1994) and the PEAK-E curriculum incorporating categorical responding has provided evidence of the utility of using stimulus equivalence in training (Dixon et al., 2017). Through programmed multiple exemplar training, the emergence of untaught responses across different functions can be generated. Similar contingencies present in the natural environment may also generate categorical responding. Thus, individuals may unwittingly form racial prejudice related to the contingencies that are occurring in their environment.

In summary, research in derived stimulus equivalence has demonstrated that learning could occur in the absence of direct training. Individuals can learn without direct training and an equivalence class may emerge across new stimuli. Research in RFT provides support that individuals can relate classes using contextual cues, derive new relations and transfer stimulus functions across stimulus classes without training. Research supports that stimulus functions are transferred through stimulus classes without reinforcement. Research in multiple exemplar training provides additional support of its effectiveness in generating untaught categorical responding. However, on the dark side of RFT, natural contingencies that individuals are exposed to may also generate categorical responding which may shape racial prejudice, and discrimination.

Using Relational Frame Theory to Examine Why Individuals Engage in Racial Prejudice

Although RFT provides insight into effective and efficient training strategies, it also lends itself to understanding why prejudice occurs. RFT suggests racial prejudice involves the derived transformation of stimulus function across relations based on a few events. Dixon et al. (2003) provided an illustration of derived relational responding through their conceptual analysis of why Irish people may be thought of as “dim-witted,” despite the absence of training or any overt label. Using frames of coordination, Irish people are labeled as heavy drinkers. Individuals are also taught that heavy drinkers are dim-witted. Without further training, individuals may then derive that Irish people are dim-witted (Dixon et al., 2003). These arbitrary cues are not based on any formal physical properties but rather social whims or conventions. RFT also suggests that transformation of stimulus functions may also occur across stimulus classes.

Contextual cues of function may explain why feelings of rage and hate can be transferred without training to arbitrary stimuli such as race, thus providing an explanation for terrorism (Dixon et al., 2003). Transformation of function occurs if a new function for a member of an established equivalence class results in the same function for all members of that class (Cooper et al., 2020). Figure 1 depicts an example of transformation of function. An individual learns about the horrors of COVID-19 (A). Behaviors indicative of fear, anxiety, and anger may be evoked and reinforced by the social community (B). Then the individual is bombarded by media reports and images of individuals in makeshift hospitals unable to breathe, death tolls, bodies in makeshift morgues, and other emotional events in China (C). The arbitrary feature of race within China such as similar appearances (D) elicits feelings of rage and anger. Thus if A is related to B and A is related to C then it can be derived that B is related to C and all features of the race category (D) evoke these relational responses. This example demonstrates how racial prejudice may be created by a derived transformation of stimulus function, based on a limited representation. That is, when an individual sees pictures or meets individuals from Iran, they may experience fear or anger and may engage in avoidant or in some cases aggressive behaviors. Any arbitrary feature of individuals, that people placed in that stimulus class, will demonstrate contextual control, and these relational frames may elicit feelings of fear and anger in these individuals. Thus, an individual with a neutral view of race may become racially prejudiced through transformation of stimulus functions across group members participating in that relational frame.

Figure 1.

A Depiction of how Transformation of Function can Explain the Formation of Prejudice. Note. The solid lines indicate trained stimulus relations, and the dotted lines are derived

Likewise, Dixon et al. (2003) used RFT to examine prejudice towards people from the Middle East following the events that took place on September 11, 2001, in the United States. Within this seminal article, the authors discussed relational responding with respect to Americans watching the attacks on television (A), and the emotions of rage (B) perpetuated by the media, then seeing the pictures on the news of the individuals who hijacked the four planes (C). The authors speculated that the feelings of hate and rage were transferred, without training, through a transfer of function across the stimuli to the pictures of individuals, all from the same region of the world to form a new relational frame. It was suggested that some United States citizens may now feel hatred and rage toward individuals who look like the images within the media (Dixon et al., 2003).

The evocative transformation of function has been well documented within the literature (Barnes-Holmes et al., 2001; Kohlenberg et al., 1991; Roche & Barnes, 1997; Smeets et al., 2001). RFT suggests that racial prejudice involves an arbitrarily derived transformation of stimulus functions based on the functions of a small number of a stimulus class. This is different from stimulus generalization as these generated relational frames are arbitrary and may be false. To try to understand transformation of function, researchers have tried to replicate transformation of function through derived equivalent relations. For example, Watt et al. (1991) trained participants through a match-to-sample task to match Catholic names and Protestant symbols, which was inconsistent with the verbal histories of participants in Northern Ireland. The authors attempted to generate derived equivalence relations between the names and found that 60% of Northern Irish participants were not successful at learning equivalence class formation when Catholic names and Protestant symbols were conditionally related to common nonsense syllables. However, individuals from outside of Northern Ireland were able to learn equivalence class formations. The authors attributed this to the strong preexisting associations between religion and attitudes, suggesting that preexisting stimulus relations may compete with the formation of experimentally trained relations. Several studies replicated this suggesting that relational frames perpetuate new relational frames, thus strengthening the belief (Dixon et al., 2006; de Carvalho & de Rose, 2014).

To evaluate the hypothesis that entrenched prejudice cannot be reversed, Dixon and Lemke (2007) conducted a study in which 12 students rated pictures of American and Middle Eastern men and random objects using a Likert scale to describe the pictures in terms of “good” or “evil.” The participants then completed match-to-sample training, creating relational networks of sameness. The results of the training indicated that during the pretest the participants rated the Middle Eastern males closer to evil and following the match-to-sample training, the participants rated the Middle Eastern men as close to good. Their findings provided evidence that prejudices may be reversed. These results were replicated, suggesting entrenched prejudices could be altered (Dixon et al., 2009; de Carvalho and de Rose, 2014).

The current article on derived relational responding as it relates to prejudice allows researchers to explore racial prejudice from an analytic lens. This research suggests that individuals should divert blaming individuals for prejudiced views but rather to focus and understand that racial prejudice may be learned and strengthened under relevant contextual cues even in the absence of direct training (e.g., watching television, surfing the web, watching the news, or attending educational activities). Not only does this insight play a critical role in understanding the environmental conditions that promote racial prejudice, it also provides possible solutions in addressing them.

Using RFT to Examine Current Ineffective Strategies to Treat Racial Prejudice

The presence of prejudice within the institutions tasked with shaping attitudes and preparing students to behave in society, emphasizes the importance of using strategies supported in research to effectively address prejudice. RFT provides an explanation for the existence of prejudice and emphasizes the dangers related to humans’ natural categorical behaviors and the generative nature of language. This research also brings to light the importance of carefully selected strategies to change the stimulus functions of beliefs that are resistant to change without further perpetuating prejudice.

Although many in Canada recognize that systemic racialized prejudice exists (Shihipar, 2017; Minsky, 2017) and needs to be addressed, approaches to eliminate this form of prejudice have yielded limited results. Despite the long-standing awareness, Latinx and Black individuals continue to be more likely to be searched or detained, denied bail, and are imprisoned more often (Edwards et al., 2013; Jones, 2013; Nellis, 2016). Some of the common strategies used to target prejudice include education, diversity training, and shaming (Alhejji et al., 2016; Bezrukova et al., 2016; Corrigan et al., 2001; Pendry et al., 2007; Robb & Doverspike, 2001). Because the results of these approaches are limited, we review them within the context of RFT to examine potential reasons for the lack of effectiveness and how RFT might improve these existing interventions to better address prejudice.

Education and Diversity Training

The delivery of education about racism, in various forms, is a common strategy used to address prejudice, yet the results are questionable. Corrigan et al. (2001) examined the effect of education on stigmatizing attitudes among 37 college-age students. Participants filled out questionnaires about attributions towards individuals with mental illness before and after treatment. During treatment, the researchers provided a 14-slide presentation and discussion led by three group leaders dispelling the myths about physical and psychiatric disabilities. General outcomes of the study showed that education had no effect on attributions related to physical disabilities; however, there were some effects on attributions related to psychiatric disabilities. These findings may be related to a participant's unique history of relational framing with the contextual cues used in the test. That is, perhaps the participants had preexisting stimulus relations related to physical disabilities but not related to the concealed psychiatric disabilities. RFT research indicates that individuals’ with preexisting stimulus relations can interfere with the formation of new stimulus relations (i.e., de Carvalho & de Rose, 2014; Dixon et al., 2006, 2009; Bezrukova et al., 2016). Thus, it is possible that prejudice, an operant shaped by multiple exemplar training, has also generalized across relational networks, thus making it more resistant to change. Physical disabilities are often more visible, and during the time of the research, mental disabilities may not have been discussed. If the history of reinforcement associated with the frames competes with the reinforcement of new frames, then this may result in individuals demonstrating resistance to new relational frames. Thus, education at certain stages of human development, and to particular groups may be a poor treatment choice for individuals with longer histories of prejudice.

Another potential problem with this type of educational instructional arrangement is that the method of delivery may strengthen the prejudice by re-presenting the prejudiced views and thus perpetuating the relational networks (Dixon et al., 2003; Hayes et al., 2002). Within the process of delivery, the prejudiced views are often repeated to educate the individual against the prejudice. This may inadvertently strengthen the relations between the prejudice and the stigmatized group. For example, educational slides are presented about “the myths of a woman’s ability to excel as leaders in the workforce.” Although the statements were indicating that the prejudiced phrase was not necessarily true, the existing prejudiced views were re-presented thus strengthening the contextual control, which may lead to the validation of the prejudice (Robb & Doverspike, 2001). These inherent challenges in education needs to be addressed when evaluating the teaching packages within diversity training.

Diversity training is defined as a distinct instructional program designed to reduce prejudice and discrimination and motivate participants to interact respectfully with individuals from diverse backgrounds (Pendry et al., 2007). These teaching packages are adopted by organizations to address concerns, ensuring workplace respect and respond to workplace prejudice. Although there is a significant body of research surrounding the guidelines for successful implementation and evaluation of diversity training (Bezrukova, 2016; Kalinoski et al., 2013), there are significant challenges in research quality and outcomes. Robb and Doverspike (2001) found that diversity training reinforced stereotypes and prejudice among students. These researchers found a small negative effect on the attitudes of 90 undergraduate males’ scores after a sexual harassment prevention training. Although the authors did not attempt to explain the “boomerang effect,” the training consisted of presenting a tape illustrating various incidents of sexual harassment to be labeled. The negative results may be due to re-presenting the prejudice attitudes, thus strengthening the relational network. Within a meta-analysis of diversity training, small effects were found which decayed over time (Bezrukova et al., 2016). Bezrukova et al. (2016) analyzed 230 independent samples across 40 years and found small changes in self-reported attitudinal changes when combined with other initiatives, however these results decayed over time. The authors found no compelling evidence that long-term effects in attitudinal changes related to diversity training were sustainable. Alhejji et al. (2016) reported that the literature on diversity training was fragmented with significant methodological limitations such as poor use of diversity-training measures, use of self-reports, lack of maintenance data, and omission of data to indicate a change in behavior. Although there is no doubt organizational diversity training is a priority, knowing about prejudice does not change behaviors of managers and employees. Research must focus on developing and testing research-based strategies to change organizational behaviors.

Bezrukova et al. (2016) found that although many diversity training programs were not effective, diversity training which included initiatives and targeted awareness and skill development demonstrated promising effects. These components may be more effective because these types of treatments lend themselves to generating many new positive relational networks. Caution must be used when providing diversity training to ensure the training does not strengthen individuals’ already held beliefs. A component analysis of the diversity training program is essential to understand effective components and eliminate the harmful components. Employing an RFT lens when evaluating the components of diversity training will provide guidance on best practice standards for diversity training.

Shaming

Another common strategy used to fight prejudice is to shame or criticize an individual's prejudiced views (Grzanka et al., 2020). Although this may not be seen as a formal strategy, shaming is adopted through marketing, public service announcements, seen in agency cultures and often is where education may begin. Although it may seem counterintuitive to indicate shaming of prejudiced views is wrong, we need to consider this tactic. Indeed, shaming is aversive, thus it should decrease behaviors, however we need to think about the side effects of punishment such as avoidance. Corrigan et al. (2001) examined the effects of “protest” or strategies that try to suppress the stigmatizing attitudes about mental illness on attribution towards mental illness. Participants filled out questionnaires about attributions towards individuals with mental illness before and after the treatment. Treatment consisted of providing a myth followed by a rebuke statement such as “this is wrong” and a shaming statement such as “shame on us for wanting to keep individuals with mental illness away from the community.” Results showed that shaming had no effects on attributions related to physical and mental disabilities.

Related to RFT, this treatment may be ineffective because the stereotype is presented repeatedly thus strengthening the relational network. The shaming statement may also strengthen the attribution, because participants are asked to suppress their negative thoughts, which has been shown to result in individuals thinking these thoughts more often (Hooper et al., 2010; Hooper et al., 2011; Wenzlaff & Wegner, 2000).

Suppressing negative thoughts or thought stopping was a cognitive behavioral technique aimed to disrupt negative thinking patterns (Christensen, 1987). This outdated therapy has been replaced with mindfulness because research demonstrated that attempting to stop thinking a thought often increased the perseveration of that thought (Hooper et al., 2011; Magee et al., 2012; Purdon, 2004). Hooper et al. (2011) compared thought suppression and mindfulness as coping techniques for fear of spiders. Participants with a fear of spiders were exposed to either thought suppression, focused attention, or unfocused attention. Participants using thought suppression moved significantly fewer steps closer to the spider in the behavior approach test than the mindfulness group. Researchers reported that subjects in the thought-stopping group thought about spiders more often and were reportedly more anxious. Research has indicated that thought stopping may increase the frequency and intensity of thoughts that are attempting to be suppressed (Magee et al., 2012; Purdon, 2004). Circling back to shaming, individuals who are attempting to suppress racial prejudice to avoid the aversive of shaming or public criticism may find themselves thinking the prejudiced views more often, thus strengthening the relational network.

Another important consideration is that shaming may be seen as a CMO-R, in which individuals may hide racist thoughts from others or themselves in order to avoid shaming. Research has indicated that even when individuals do not report racist thoughts, they may in fact be having these. Barnes-Holmes et al. (2010) presented participants with one of two stimuli, “Safe” and “Dangerous,” and a picture of a white or Black man holding a gun on the IRAP test. The IRAP test monitors speed of responses, which is effective at determining implicit bias (unintentional or unconscious bias). The test revealed pro-white and anti-Black biases, even when participants did not explicitly self-report any racial bias. The challenge with hidden prejudice is that it is still present and will likely lead to discrimination. These common approaches in addressing prejudice may not only be ineffective but may perpetuate prejudice and may mask self-awareness and the need for treatment. It is important to analyze both research and research-supported theories to better address the global societal challenge of prejudice. The following research-based strategies may lead to more effective strategies.

Using RFT to Examine Potential Effective Treatment for Racial Prejudice

Hayes et al. (2002) provide insight into the treatment of prejudice with the following statement: “prejudice will not be defeated by logic, rules, finger-wagging or simply goodwill. It will take more. Behavior therapists are among the few who are well-positioned to learn what that might be” (p. 7). RFT provides some insight into strategies that may be promising.

Media

Media is a powerful tool that can influence many people across distances using diverse platforms, and its effectiveness may be rooted in its ability in organizing complex information and efficiency in delivering them in real time. Research suggests that providing multiple exemplars is an effective strategy to teach many skills (Luciano et al., 2007; Marzullo-Kerth et al., 2011; Rosales et al., 2011). Within the media, examples of prejudice can be provided in the form of televised news, drama programs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Although the media falls short of controlling variables and being analytic in nature, one cannot argue the similarity in the strategy of providing many examples of a given concept or view. There is literature supporting the use of media in changing views or attitudes. For example, research has supported the use of media to increase attitudes of acceptance toward people living with HIV and AIDS, as well as mental health issues (Clement et al., 2013; Fakolade et al., 2010). Fakolade et al. (2010) found that exposure to mass media communications on social support for AIDS and HIV issues were significantly related to the reduced stigma and discrimination against people with AIDS and HIV. The researchers noted a positive trend in attitudes towards people living with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria between 2003 and 2007 as a function of the media campaign.

Given the research indicating the effectiveness of media to change attitudes and the many media platforms, it is not a far stretch to believe that media can both facilitate or squash racism. Media tends to focus on negative events and uses powerful, emotional language and imagery to increase viewership (Adilov & Martin, 2014). The powerful imagery, across many platforms, coupled with the generative nature of relational networks may have possibly created a substantial barrier. Algorithms within computer networks that generate reports similar to stories viewers have browsed may increase the numbers of reports with the same perspective. Thus, individuals may be bombarded with images that serve to strengthen the relational network, and that can lead to entrenched prejudice. Research has indicated that entrenched prejudice is more challenging to change. Media plays a part in sensationalizing negative images of marginalized groups, thus amplifying the spread of misinformation, which may strengthen prejudiced relational networks. Addressing the harmful influence of media and social media is extremely difficult when balancing with freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is a human right, but the right to perpetuate prejudiced views may consequently produce more harm and divisiveness. For instance, the legal complaint against Facebook for allegedly promoting violence and anti-Rohingya content raises some considerations about ethical reporting and the ethical responsibilities of social media. Given the knowledge we have of the potential dangers and the power of media, this may support some regulatory requirements of these industries.

Acceptance Commitment Therapy

Rooted in RFT, the goal of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help individuals to become mindful and accepting of the present moment while at the same time supporting individuals to engage in behaviors that are in alignment of their values (Hayes et al., 2013). This contemporary behavior-analytic approach is aligned to addressing the verbal behavior associated with racism with an overall goal of increasing psychological flexibility (Tarbox et al., 2020). ACT consists of processes designed to be strengthened (values, present moment attention, and acceptance) and procedures used to strengthen these repertoires (defusion, self as context, and committed action; Tarbox et al., 2020). The value components of ACT are chosen life directions that steer purposeful behaviors throughout a person’s life (Fletcher & Hayes, 2005). These values may function as rules that alter the effectiveness of relevant consequences that will then influence a person's capacity in fulfilling their goals that are meaningful to them. One of the processes involved in ACT requires an individual’s behavior to be under the control of present moment contingencies. By allocating one's full attention to the present moment, past events that may have exerted greater control on one's behavior may eventually weaken, thus, allowing an individual to engage in behaviors that are consistent to what they value at the present moment. By being more present, individuals are likely to become more sensitive in experiencing the present moment instead of engaging in incompatible behaviors that desensitizes them from prevailing contingencies (Bordieri, 2021). For instance, being aware of racist views or the current effect of media or other experiences and being willing to sit and recognize these private events is an important component of ACT. Acceptance is the process of nonjudgmentally accepting one's private events (thoughts, emotions, feelings, urges) without attempting to alter their form and or function. For example, being aware that you had a prejudiced thought, and relating to that thought as neither “good” or “bad.” As a technique, defusion refers to a process that attempts to change or broaden one's existing repertoires that have been acquired through relational learning. These techniques consist of a variety of procedures designed to reframe current thoughts as simply thoughts, rather than binding realities (Blackledge, 2007). For example, repeating a prejudiced view in one’s head many times, may help individuals see these as words going through their mind, rather than reality. Although the techniques of defusion are varied and different from the previously mentioned strategy of providing multiple exemplars related to marginalized groups, they share an underlying theory of transformation of stimulus functions. Perspective-taking has been theorized in ACT as fostering flexibility, and a sense of self as distinct from thoughts and feelings (Barnes-Holmes et al., 2013; Ku et al., 2015). Perspective-taking training involves exercises where individuals are taught to walk in others' shoes using three types of perspectives: personal (I/you), spatial (here/there), and temporal (now/then; Edwards et al., 2017; Lueke and Gibson (2015). Committed actions are behavioral changes that move the client toward value-consistent goals. Self as context is an awareness of self and that we are not the content of our experiences. It helps us to recognize ourselves as distinct from our thoughts and identify the narratives or stories we have created about ourselves and others, as just that, stories.

ACT research may be a promising intervention to reduce prejudice (Hayes et al., 2004; Krafft et al., 2018; Masuda et al., 2007; Tarbox et al., 2020). Lueke and Gibson (2015) found a decrease in implicit racial bias in 72 college students following mindfulness meditation. Masuda et al. (2007) compared ACT to education for treating stigmatizing attitudes and found that ACT was effective in all cases, but education was effective in reducing stigmatizing attitudes only in subjects presenting with high flexibility. Luoma et al. (2008) created an ACT model and piloted this model with 88 participants from a substance abuse residential treatment program. The manualized 6-hr treatment consisted of exercises in mindfulness, acceptance, and values related to self-stigma in substance abuse. The researchers found a significant decrease in shame post-treatment. ACT has been found to be an effective strategy to be used in a classroom setting (Wilson et al., 2022; Tarbox et al., 2022).

Strategies to recognize prejudice within oneself, rather than hide or deny it, may serve as an important step in treating prejudice. Lillis and Hayes (2007) effectively used an ACT intervention to help undergraduates accept their prejudicial thoughts, recognize them as such, and clarify their values about members of other races. Similar research can be found in other areas of psychology. Biglan et al. (2012) described features of a nurturing environment designed to prevent the development of psychological and behavioral problems. The authors suggested four strategies, including fostering psychological flexibility. Research regarding prejudice found that psychological inflexibility was correlated with high scores on prejudice scales (Bäckström & Björklund, 2007; McFarland, 2010). The researchers found that individuals who believed humans were fixed and unchangeable had higher levels of stereotyping of racial groups. Researchers effectively demonstrated success in using ACT to teach psychological flexibility to neurotypical children in a camp setting (Enoch & Dixon, 2019). Based on these results, ACT strategies may be a promising intervention in increasing psychological flexibility for individuals with rigid beliefs and rules about racial groups. Components of ACT have shown promise in the treatment of prejudice. These components should be considered when designing intervention packages such as diversity and inclusion training, educational curriculums, and professional development training.

Community Programs

There is evidence that providing multiple exemplars of real-life experiences with a stigmatized group is effective at decreasing stigma (Corrigan et al., 2001; Leroux & McShane, 2017). Corrigan et al. (2001) provided 38 college-age participants with 10 min of direct contact with two individuals diagnosed with various types of mental illness. Participants filled out questionnaires about attributions towards individuals with mental illness before and after the interactions. Researchers found that contact with these individuals yielded positive changes in the subjects’ attitudes towards the stigmatized group. It is conceivable that by providing multiple, powerful exemplars, the researchers were able to create new relational networks about the stigmatized group, and thus new derived relational responding was created.

Leroux and McShane (2017) examined the results of a community policing program designed to increase youths’ positive attitudes toward police. They found that participation in the program increased positive attitudes toward the police in all 45 youth participants. This 16-week program consisted of a safe drop-in center, in which activities such as playing basketball, board games, video games, watching movies, computer access, and homework help were available. Police officers were present, but the youth were not obligated to interact. Leroux and McShane (2017) noted that some youth maintained a distance whereas others actively engaged. One interpretation of the results is that although this program did not attempt to provide counseling or teach cultural sensitivity, it did provide multiple exemplar experiences such as “police officers talk nicely to kids,” “police officers play fun games,” and “police officers care about kids.” It may also be noted that these experiences may have been socially reinforced through positive interactions. As these experiences accumulated, the children may have formed a stimulus class that was inconsistent with their previous views. Although not tested, the emergence of new relational networks among police officers may have evolved as well.

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure

Both in research and in developing treatment approaches, it is imperative to objectively measure the effectiveness of the treatment. Prejudiced behaviors may be concealed or may happen at a low frequency. Creating an objective measurement of covert or implicit bias allows researchers and clinicians to objectively measure the effect of treatments.

The implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) is a computer-based procedure for measuring implicit cognition. Within the test, each trial presents pairs of stimuli and participants must answer by clicking words, statements, or pictures (Barnes-Homes et al., 2010). The response latency is measured by how many milliseconds elapse between the onset of the trial and the response (Barnes-Homes et al., 2010). Slower responses are an indication that stimulus pairings exist which are inconsistent with the social norm for that respondent (biased responding). Thus, the extra time may be the individual self-editing their response. Research on the IRAP has found that the test is a reliable and valid measure of relational repertoires as they are related to racial prejudice (Drake et al., 2015). Thus, this enables trainees to discover their implicit bias without unintentional or intentional self-edits and allows these individuals to engage in more training.

In summary, research conducted in RFT, ACT and IRAP revealed promising outcomes in addressing prejudice. Future research into these strategies is imperative and longitudinal research is required to ensure the maintenance of these results. Careful consideration must be given to ensure prejudiced relational networks are not accidentally perpetuated within the treatment and blame within the treatment of prejudice is removed.

Future Directions for Educators

Educational institutions are tasked with not only providing academic instruction but in shaping attitudes and preparing students to behave in socially meaningful ways in society. Research suggests that the role in transmitting cultural values to the next generation may have systemic challenges within educational institutions due to the presence of prejudice within teachers and suggests the importance of exploring research-based strategies. As educators begin to explore how best to introduce pedagogy and design learning environments that stem from a contextual framework, they may explore empirical relational frame theory studies investigating the perpetuation of prejudice in academia and strategies to effectively challenge racial prejudice. Future directions based on research that educators can use to create self-aware, accepting, and inclusive world citizens are described below.

Research has suggested that preexisting relations may compete with the formation of experimentally trained relations (Watt et al., 1991; Dixon et al., 2009). Although some research provides hope that these preexisting relational frames can be reversed, it may also be prudent to attempt to provide targeted multiple exemplar training of marginalized groups prior to children being exposed to relational networks that promote prejudice. Young children do not have extensive multiple-exemplar experience. Investing in strategies prior to the development of prejudiced relational networks and the associated transformation of functions may help to inhibit prejudice, the costs associated with strategies of neutralizing prejudice after it has been established, and the costs of prejudice within society. Deterring prejudice and increasing the prevalence of the successful development of accepting citizens may not only be less costly but may be more effective and more efficient.

Strategies targeting children’s development of relational networks need to include socially valued qualities such as caring, intelligence, creativity, and strength being linked to marginalized groups. The goal of a prevention or deterrence strategy is to expose children to multiple exemplars related to positive aspects of marginalized identities. As relational experience accumulates, children may form stimulus classes. Providing opportunities for students to visit spaces and places where they are exposed to rich contexts outside of their own cultural/racial contexts may be one example of creating positive relational networks. Given the generative nature of relational networks, these networks may perpetuate new networks providing inter-support and strengthening their beliefs. Thus, when children are exposed to a negative presentation of the marginalized group, that may promote prejudice leading to negative stereotypes, these children may be resistant to change and be more likely to reject the new stimuli.

Research has supported ACT in the treatment of prejudice and found that ACT was more effective than education (Hayes et al., 2004; Krafft et al., 2018; Lillis & Hayes, 2007; Masuda et al., 2007). Incorporating elements of ACT into all levels of education to teach acknowledgment and self-awareness of personal prejudice, may lead students to help identify implicit biases that are present or may develop. Incorporating manualized ACT for children into curricula may provide opportunities to teach psychological flexibility, perspective taking and the development of values of being accepting citizens. Focusing on values of inclusiveness, fairness, and teaching students strategies to move toward valued goals may be taught.

Training using research-based strategies should also target educational institutions tasked with training professionals in the fields such as education, policing, health care and behavior analysis. Given the influence that teachers exert and the pervasive goal of many professional organizations to foster values of equity, inclusion, and respect for diversity, curriculum must include evidence-based strategies to teach critical race theory. Professors and professionals must first learn to be critical thinkers and gain an understanding of how bias forms within their own brains, in order to guard against implicit bias. The use of the IRAP may be used as a tool within professional schools to self-identify implicit biases that may be present in order to help students to focus on these areas. Professions requiring split second decisions are especially vulnerable to unrecognized implicit biases.

There is potential in the application of RFT at all levels in educational institutions. Institutions have the opportunity to help build accepting world citizens by providing multiple exemplars; promoting a rich cultural diversity of marginalized groups to students; having students celebrate and participate in related festivals and holidays; developing and embedding pedagogy that is reflective of the diversity of students attending the institution and living in the surrounding community. Marginalized community leaders and educators with lived experience need to be invited in and remunerated for their contributions in places of learning. They provide valuable exemplars and new opportunities for positive exemplars. Nurturing a classroom environment that welcomes and celebrates the voices, perspectives, teachings, and history of marginalized communities is essential. Likewise, when addressing gender-based prejudice, sharing histories, and visual examples of women and girls in leadership roles within nontraditional sectors can help create competing relational networks. Hiring teachers and mentors from minority groups is an important process in providing multiple exemplars. As well, creating video resources and incorporating pictures in lectures with individuals from marginalized groups in leadership or clinical roles is an effortless change to resources that provides multiple exemplars.

Teaching students about the influence of media is an important concept within self-awareness. Having students create media campaigns that avoid challenging prejudice that restate the target prejudice and instead provide positive, desirable attributes about the marginalized group, may be an effective strategy to lower community-wide prejudice. Media campaigns featuring leaders and accomplishments of individuals from stigmatized groups may provide multiple exemplars and promote positive features of that identity, thereby counteracting the relational networks that may lead to prejudices. Providing a sufficient number of exemplars, combined with reinforcement such as contemporary music, and attractive pictures may lead to the emergence of untrained stimulus relations and create complex networks of stimulus relations. Because of the generative nature of relational responding, and the ability of media to reach a large percent of the population, this may have particular utility in addressing worldwide prejudice.

Why Must We Act

Racially motivated violence in Canada continues to increase. From 2019 to 2020, the number of reported crimes motivated by hatred increased 80%. This increase in hate crimes targeting the Black population (318+ incidents), East or Southeast Asian population (202+ incidents), the Indigenous population (44+ incidents) and the South Asian population (38+ incidents; Wang & Moreau, 2022).

The promotion of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) via the integration of content that is reflective of the lived experience of students and their histories is a necessary technical skill for educators. The existence of policies to promote the values of inclusion and equity is not enough. To support these initiatives, we must think of how, in our role as educators, can we create opportunities to inform and promote behaviors that support a more comprehensive understanding of the world around us. By doing so, greater compassion and emotional intelligence will be encouraged in our future workforce. Based on our findings, we have included recommendations to educators for consideration as they engage in their own professional learning and development (Table 1). These theories suggest that no one is without prejudice and that our brains are programmed to be prejudiced. So, as educators, we must begin with examining our own bias through a process of co-learning with students in our classrooms.

Table 1.

Recommended Strategies for Educators to Facilitate EDI Awareness and Training

Target Practices / Behaviors	Rationale	Supporting Practices
Develop an awareness of implicit biases	To build self-awareness, a sense of greater self-efficacy over learning, and exposure to media.	Incorporate in the curriculum the foundational learning about bias—how it is formed, how it shows up, how we build awareness of how it shapes our behavior.
Retraining	Strategies of becoming aware of implicit biases are not enough, addressing these implicit biases are important for educators. Unintentional presentations of racist views may encourage or support relational frames among students.	Providing resources to facilitate discussions on implicit biases from research-based curricula. Accessing reading materials by and about people with lived experience. Reviewing material that provides a fulsome perspective of that lived experience, including positive attributes of those communities of identity.
Pedagogy / Andragogy	Developing a rich source of strategies and materials will encourage teachers to include pedagogy to facilitate equity, diversity, and inclusion.	Positive symbols and stories celebrating diverse people can be woven throughout course material, rather than a one off (e.g., only recognizing Black Leaders during Black History Month). Stories that reinforce strengths, contributions, shared history, unique histories, and contemporary leaders.
Symbolism and representation	Representation matters and modeling from diverse leaders and educators is deeply meaningful to learners who are marginalized, and important modeling for white, able bodied students and educators.	Bringing leaders into spaces to speak about their lived experiences; sourcing materials written by people with lived experience; speaking to the subject matter at a level to which you have learned; diverse hiring throughout learning institutions.
Using and incorporating strategies based on ACT	Research has indicated that ACT is an effective strategy in addressing behaviors associated with racism and prejudice.	Resources from ACT are readily available free online. Tools such as perspective taking training are easy to adapt to classrooms (e.g., walking in others' shoes using three types of perspectives: personal [I/you], spatial [here/there], and temporal [now/then]).
Best practices & co-learning	Gathering with colleagues to share best practices and learn about new materials and resources is an effective strategy to both learn and maintain best practice standards through sharing and social reinforcement. Opportunities to emphasize strengths and support co-learning is an effective strategy to maintain this perspective. Meeting with professionals committed to EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) outside of the immediate sphere of influence could help to challenge individual and or group bias.	Develop or join a Community of Practice committed to EDI and teaching; sharing best practices through Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, presenting at conferences, sharing materials created for classroom learning, and promoting relevant training. Record successes and failures as an organization. Modeling vulnerability and openness when learning new concepts with students. Taking a facilitative approach when exploring new content.
Objective measurement of behavior and change	Creating objective measurements will help individuals understand their implicit bias and needs. Researchers should use objective measurements to identify the changes of behavior following treatment approaches.	Use of objective strategies such as the IRAP or other objective self-management strategies within professional programs and research.

To co-learn with students means the educator is making a committed effort to become reasonably open, vulnerable, reflective, and skillful in their approach to instruction. Arranging meaningful co-learning may require an inspection of the possible impact of labels educators may unknowingly use that may have a limiting effect on student participation and engagement. Students may relate to their instructors as “subject matter experts.” Experts are typically considered individuals who have comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of a specific topic or field. And when an educator is labeled as such, especially those who specialize in teaching diversity and inclusion, such a term could have intimidating effects on students. Students may relate to them in such high regard that they may start undervaluing their experiences and undermining their capacity to engage in meaningful engagement with their instructor simply because of their preconceived assumptions. To promote better engagement, educators may possibly adopt “facilitator” as an alternative term. An educator that “facilitates” is generally viewed as supportive, open, caring, nonjudgmental, and collaborative. And because students may relate more positively to this term, this can set the tone for students to become more open in sharing their personal experiences and unique worldviews in class.

Engaging in meaningful discussion and sharing personal stories are just a few of the many learning activities that can be used in exploring one’s biases and prejudices. When facilitated in an open and supportive learning environment, individuals may become more at ease and engaged as they feel like their stories are heard, and their experiences acknowledged without judgment. To produce such outcomes requires skillful preparation. Before conducting an activity, an educator may ask everyone from the group what active listening, respectful participation, and supportive action may look like from their individual point of view. By providing individuals the opportunity to operationalize these behaviors, the educator will be in a much more informed position in arranging meaningful activities that will further facilitate a deeper understanding of one’s and others’ experiences.

Exploring one’s biases and prejudices is a lifelong process. And for the majority of individuals, their initial exposure to these topics may start in their post-secondary education. Therefore, the need for a timely, relevant, and well-designed diversity curriculum must be in place. Because the goal is for students to develop an ongoing practice of self-discovery, a type of self-monitoring and performance measurement mechanism may be included in a curriculum to allow for students to learn how to record and monitor their own behavior. Taking notice and measuring the impact of one’s behavior towards self and others can promote accountability, greater self-worth, and personal meaning. Training these skills early will not only help students develop a greater sense of personal and social responsibility, but most important, it will empower them to enact changes that are meaningful to their society. Finally, the field of education must take a critical look at the lack of racial diversity within our field of work and among the students in our classrooms as we move into post-secondary institutions.

Conclusion

RFT provides insight into why prejudice occurs and lends itself to identifying both ineffective and effective strategies to identify, eliminate, or reduce prejudice. The ability to create verbal classification, attribution, and arbitrarily derive relational frames provides insight into the complexity of human behavior, the success of humans evolutionarily, and the predisposition for prejudice. Because of this process of language development, humans can learn without direct experience, humans can acquire information quickly, and can categorize and make sense of vast amounts of information. However, these categorizations and derived relations may have immense implications in terms of prejudice.

More research is required to provide robust support to help behavior analysts contribute to a growing body of knowledge to address entrenched, systemic prejudices. To tackle the global challenge of prejudice, discrimination, and domestic terrorism aimed at marginalized groups, we need to implement research-based strategies systemically. Strategies such as creating school-based programs that create positive exemplars for marginalized groups, opportunities to build empathy, and psychological flexibility in children may help protect them from entrenched prejudice. Moreover, carefully crafting media campaigns designed to provide multiple exemplars that inspire acceptance and inclusion, must be embedded in learning institutions. Educators need to engage in a lifelong process of exploring one’s biases and prejudices and facilitate this with their students. We have the opportunity to support efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion within our field, and model this openness to learning for our students.

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