Science

Children’s literacy rates are falling around the globe. In response, a number of governments, including New Zealand’s, are overhauling the way reading is taught in primary school.

One key change is a renewed focus on phonics (mapping sounds to letters).

But an overemphasis on phonics could dampen children’s motivation to read for enjoyment and understanding.

In my new book, I show how important it is to foster a love of books and stories in young children if they are to become lifelong readers.

The science of reading

Reading isn’t natural for humans. Instead, it is a recent skill in our evolutionary history.

Today, children’s lifelong academic and occupational success depends on becoming literate.

Learning to read in English is devilishly difficult. Many words that sound the same are spelled differently (team and teem, for example) and the same group of letters can be pronounced differently (dough versus through).

Most reading scientists and teachers agree direct instruction in letter-sound relationships (phonics) is necessary for children to become readers. Skilled reading also involves comprehending the meaning of words.

But because reading is difficult and requires practice, children must also want to put in the time and effort needed to become a fluent reader.

This motivation to read begins much earlier than the first day of school.

Reading instruction needs to connect with the ingrained human love of oral stories if it is to turn into a love of reading.

Growing a love of books

Children’s love of the sounds, melodies and emotions in stories is innate and has existed throughout human history. Hunter-gatherer tribes with a higher per capita rate of storytellers were more likely to thrive.

In my book, I drew on findings from Growing Up in New Zealand, Aotearoa’s largest longitudinal study of child health and well-being. I also included the latest data from Origins of Language and Memory of New Zealand children—the longest-running study in the world of children’s story development.

My findings highlight the critical role that families play in turning a love of oral stories into a love of books.

Although a love of stories starts in the womb, most parents wait until their babies are born to start reading books to them.

To successfully share a picture book with a baby, the adult needs to follow the infant’s gaze and react to what is on the page, then wait to let the baby take a turn—whether through a coo, a look or a smack of the book.

At this tender age, the goal is to establish a book-sharing routine and enjoy back-and-forth “stories” rather than to get through a whole book.

In the toddler years, stories begin to flow more fluidly. Toddlers who have experienced stories from books and conversations will initiate stories readily with an adult, either by talking about a recent event or by bringing their favorite book to read together.

If these conversations are responsive, both types of stories strengthen children’s language, literacy, and social and emotional development.

In the preschool years, children with consistent book-sharing and reminiscing routines will acquire advanced skills including abstract vocabulary, print concepts, awareness of the sounds of words and understanding of characters’ emotions and actions. They are also able to link stories from books to their own lives.

All these skills are critical for their later reading success.

Time to read

Even children with this solid foundation may find it challenging to learn to read in the first year of school.

The goal is to help them “crack the code” (mapping sounds to letters) as quickly as possible. Only then will a child be able to integrate their knowledge and love of stories with the sounds of words on a page.

For this leap to happen, a child must want to read on their own. Children with a rich story bank will be able to push past the difficulty of decoding to reading for understanding and enjoyment.

Phonics is a necessary step in the lifelong timescale of literacy development. Yet, according to reading expert Sebastian Suggate, early reading instruction with a child who doesn’t love stories or books is like sowing seeds on parched earth.

For children to become successful readers, we need to enrich the soil by instilling a love of stories and books in the first five years of life and beyond—long after the phonics work is finished.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

This week the New South Wales government announced it would introduce legislation that ensures renters are offered convenient, fee-free options to pay their rent.

The announcement is just one of many state and territory reforms that aim to address issues arising from the use of rental technology platforms.

In recent years these platforms and the landlords who use them have come under fire for intruding on renters’ privacy and charging additional fees. While practices such as “rent bidding” have already been outlawed around Australia, governments are now starting to turn their attention to other harmful practices facilitated by new technologies.

Action on these issues is long overdue, and there’s much more that needs to be done to ensure rental technology platforms actually benefit consumers.

An expanding industry

A wide range of digital technology platforms are used to facilitate the use, trading, operation and management of real estate assets. A well-known example is AirBnb, a technology platform that facilitates short-term rentals by connecting hosts with guests.

The property technology industry in Australia is rapidly expanding. In 2023, there were more than 478 products, start-ups and established companies ranging from marketing tools to data analytics platforms. This was up from 188 in 2019.

A portion of these companies make services typically designed to be used by renters, real estate agents or landlords.

A major selling point of rental technology platforms is that they promise to streamline a range of processes. To renters, these technologies are billed as quick, easy and effective ways to submit property applications, request maintenance or pay rent.

If designed well, these platforms can certainly offer convenience. But many have expressed dissatisfaction with rental technology businesses that pressure renters to pay for costly background checks, collect too much personal data, or use opaque algorithms to “score” applicants.

People who struggle to access or use technologies may also find these platforms difficult to use. This makes it harder for them to access an essential service.

Some 41% of renters report feeling pressured to use a third-party rental technology platform to apply for a property. And 29% say they have opted not to apply for particular rentals because they do not trust rental technology platforms. This suggests that the use of these technologies may sometimes deter, rather than attract, applicants.

Additional fees

Over 30% of Australians rent their homes, a figure that continues to grow as people find themselves priced out of home ownership. Rising rents and the overall increase in the cost of living have put many renters under substantial financial pressure.

With this in mind, it’s concerning that some renters have found themselves with little choice but to use rental technology platforms that charge fees to process rental payments.

For example, renters using a popular platform called Ailo are typically charged between 0.25% to 1.50% to make automated rental payments, depending on the method of payment they use. A rough estimate shows that a household paying the median weekly rent (A$627 per week) on a fortnightly basis might see themselves paying between $81.51 and $489.06 in additional fees each year.

As required by law, Ailo does offer a fee-free option to pay rent. But this option is highly inconvenient: it requires renters to enter their bank details anew each time they make a payment.

The fee-free options offered by some other rental technology platforms are equally inconvenient. They include paying rent in cash at the local post office.

For renters who have been asked to use a rental payment platform, this may mean spending additional time and effort every time they pay their rent to avoid paying additional fees.

The NSW government already requires lessors to offer fee-free ways to pay rent (similar protections are legislated in other states and territories). However, the key element of this week’s announcement is a commitment to making sure these fee-free methods are actually convenient. This should hopefully close the legislative loophole that is enabling these rental technologies to unfairly profit at renters’ expense.

While the draft legislation is yet to be seen, these reforms might see renters reverting to tried and tested payment methods such as bank transfers and bypassing rental technology payment platforms altogether.

Effective enforcement

Introducing laws that ensure renters have access to convenient, fee-free ways to make rental payments is a no-brainer. The next step is ensuring these laws are enforced effectively.

To achieve this, the regulator must be well resourced to carry out compliance and enforcement activities that ensure lessors and rental technology businesses comply with these protections.

Beyond these reforms, there is more work to be done to ensure renters are effectively protected from a range of harms that are created or exacerbated by rental technology platforms.

Issues such as discrimination and unfair treatment through rental technology platforms warrant further attention.

The key challenge for governments and regulators is to keep up with technological developments so they can identify and address issues as they arise.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A recent study sheds light on why both humans and monkeys may struggle to perform under pressure when high rewards are at stake. Researchers found that stress impacts brain signals essential for executing movements, leading to subpar performance. The study involved three monkeys completing tasks to earn water as a reward. When the reward was moderate, the monkeys excelled. However, when faced with a potential large jackpot, their performance declined significantly. This finding aligns with experiences seen in high-stakes environments, such as competitive sports or performing arts.

Understanding Motor Preparation

The study, which was published in the journal Neuron, tested the monkeys’ speed and accuracy as they reached for a target on a screen. The monkeys had to wait for a cue indicating when to reach, with different cue colours corresponding to varying reward sizes. Before the official trials, the scientists confirmed that the monkeys could identify larger rewards with nearly perfect accuracy.

During the trials, researchers monitored hundreds of neurons in the monkeys’ brains using implanted electrodes, focusing on areas involved in “motor preparation.” Notably, the monkeys exhibited the worst performance when the reward was either too small or excessively large. Adam Smoulder, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University and lead author of the study, noted that the monkeys seemed overly cautious when a big reward was involved, which hindered their speed.

Implications for Human Behaviour

The study suggests that the size of a reward affects whether the brain achieves an “optimal zone” for motor preparation, where performance is maximised. When rewards exceed this optimal point, performance deteriorates. Co-senior author Steven Chase, a biomedical engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon, emphasised the importance of these findings for understanding human behaviour, particularly in contexts like addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The researchers aim to identify ways to facilitate these optimal neural patterns to improve performance under pressure. Christopher Mesagno, a senior lecturer at Victoria University, highlighted that while this study provides insights into neural pathways, future research could further explore the effects of social anxiety in humans.

Mars wasn’t always the cold desert we see today. There’s increasing evidence that water once flowed on the red planet’s surface, billions of years ago. And if there was water, there must also have been a thick atmosphere to keep that water from freezing. But sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, the water dried up, and the air, once heavy with carbon dioxide, dramatically thinned, leaving only the wisp of an atmosphere that clings to the planet today.

Where exactly did Mars’ atmosphere go? This question has been a central mystery of Mars’ 4.6-billion-year history.

For two MIT geologists, the answer may lie in the planet’s clay. In a paper appearing in Science Advances, they propose that much of Mars’ missing atmosphere could be locked up in the planet’s clay-covered crust. The study’s lead author is recent EAPS graduate Joshua Murray Ph.D. ’24.

The team makes the case that, while water was present on Mars, the liquid could have trickled through certain rock types and set off a slow chain of reactions that progressively drew carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and converted it into methane—a form of carbon that could be stored for eons in the planet’s clay surface.

Similar processes occur in some regions on Earth. The researchers used their knowledge of interactions between rocks and gases on Earth and applied that to how similar processes could play out on Mars. They found that, given how much clay is estimated to cover Mars’ surface, the planet’s clay could hold up to 1.7 bar of carbon dioxide, which would be equivalent to around 80% of the planet’s initial, early atmosphere.

It’s possible that this sequestered Martian carbon could one day be recovered and converted into propellant to fuel future missions between Mars and Earth, the researchers propose.

“Based on our findings on Earth, we show that similar processes likely operated on Mars, and that copious amounts of atmospheric CO₂ could have transformed to methane and been sequestered in clays,” says study author Oliver Jagoutz, professor of geology in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). “This methane could still be present and maybe even used as an energy source on Mars in the future.”

In the folds

Jagoutz’ group at MIT seeks to identify the geologic processes and interactions that drive the evolution of Earth’s lithosphere—the hard and brittle outer layer that includes the crust and upper mantle, where tectonic plates lie.

In 2023, he and Murray focused on a type of surface clay mineral called smectite, which is known to be a highly effective trap for carbon. Within a single grain of smectite are a multitude of folds, within which carbon can sit undisturbed for billions of years. They showed that smectite on Earth was likely a product of tectonic activity, and that, once exposed at the surface, the clay minerals acted to draw down and store enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to cool the planet over millions of years.

Soon after the team reported their results, Jagoutz happened to look at a map of the surface of Mars and realized that much of that planet’s surface was covered in the same smectite clays. Could the clays have had a similar carbon-trapping effect on Mars, and if so, how much carbon could the clays hold?

“We know this process happens, and it is well-documented on Earth. And these rocks and clays exist on Mars,” Jagoutz says. “So, we wanted to try and connect the dots.”

‘Every nook and cranny’

Unlike on Earth, where smectite is a consequence of continental plates shifting and uplifting to bring rocks from the mantle to the surface, there is no such tectonic activity on Mars. The team looked for ways in which the clays could have formed on Mars, based on what scientists know of the planet’s history and composition.

For instance, some remote measurements of Mars’ surface suggest that at least part of the planet’s crust contains ultramafic igneous rocks, similar to those that produce smectites through weathering on Earth. Other observations reveal geologic patterns similar to terrestrial rivers and tributaries, where water could have flowed and reacted with the underlying rock.

Jagoutz and Murray wondered whether water could have reacted with Mars’ deep ultramafic rocks in a way that would produce the clays that cover the surface today. They developed a simple model of rock chemistry, based on what is known of how igneous rocks interact with their environment on Earth.

They applied this model to Mars, where scientists believe the crust is mostly made up of igneous rock that is rich in the mineral olivine. The team used the model to estimate the changes that olivine-rich rock might undergo, assuming that water existed on the surface for at least a billion years, and the atmosphere was thick with carbon dioxide.

“At this time in Mars’ history, we think CO₂ is everywhere, in every nook and cranny, and water percolating through the rocks is full of CO₂ too,” Murray says.

Over about a billion years, water trickling through the crust would have slowly reacted with olivine—a mineral that is rich in a reduced form of iron. Oxygen molecules in water would have bound to the iron, releasing hydrogen as a result and forming the red oxidized iron which gives the planet its iconic color.

This free hydrogen would then have combined with carbon dioxide in the water, to form methane. As this reaction progressed over time, olivine would have slowly transformed into another type of iron-rich rock known as serpentine, which then continued to react with water to form smectite.

“These smectite clays have so much capacity to store carbon,” Murray says. “So then we used existing knowledge of how these minerals are stored in clays on Earth, and extrapolate to say, if the Martian surface has this much clay in it, how much methane can you store in those clays?”

He and Jagoutz found that if Mars is covered in a layer of smectite that is 1,100 meters deep, this amount of clay could store a huge amount of methane, equivalent to most of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is thought to have disappeared since the planet dried up.

“We find that estimates of global clay volumes on Mars are consistent with a significant fraction of Mars’ initial CO₂being sequestered as organic compounds within the clay-rich crust,” Murray says. “In some ways, Mars’ missing atmosphere could be hiding in plain sight.”

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.

Turn-taking dynamics of social interactions are important for speech and gesture synchronization, enabling conversations to proceed efficiently, according to a study published September 25, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tifenn Fauviaux from the University of Montpellier, France, and colleagues.

Conversations encompass continuous exchanges of verbal and nonverbal information. Previous research has demonstrated that gestures and speech synchronize at the individual level. But few studies have investigated how this phenomenon may unfold between individuals.

To fill this knowledge gap, Fauviaux and colleagues used an online dataset consisting of 14 sessions of two people engaged in unstructured face-to-face conversations during which they were free to talk about specific topics. Each of these sessions contained between one and four discussions, and the conversations lasted from seven to 15 minutes.

The researchers analyzed both audio and motion data, and measured speech and gesture synchronization at different timescales. Specifically, they focused on vocal properties through the speech amplitude envelope and movement properties through head and wrist gestures.

The results supported previous research on speech and gesture coordination at the individual level, revealing synchronization at all timescales of the conversation. That is, there was higher-than-chance synchronization between a given participant’s wrist and head movements, and similar synchronization between these movements and vocal properties.

Extending the literature, the researchers also found that gestures and speech synchronize between individuals. In other words, there was coordination between the voices and the bodies of the two speakers. Taken together, the findings suggest that this type of synchronization of verbal and nonverbal information likely depends on the turn-taking dynamics of conversations.

According to the authors, the study enriches our understanding of behavioral dynamics during social interactions at both the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels, and strengthens knowledge regarding the importance of synchrony between speech and gestures. Future research building on this study could shed light on prosocial behaviors and psychiatric conditions characterized by social deficits.

The authors add, “How do my speech and behaviors influence, or respond to, the speech and behaviors of the person I’m conversing with? This study answers this question by investigating the multimodal dynamic between speech and movements, both at the individual’s level and the dyadic level. Our findings confirm intrapersonal coordination between speech and gestures across all temporal scales.

“It also suggests that multimodal and interpersonal synchronization may be influenced by the speech channel, particularly the dynamics of turn-taking.”

The US House of Representatives is more likely to vote on climate action when it is linked with certain other environmental issues, according to a study published September 25, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Kayla Morton of the University of Washington, Seattle and colleagues.

Climate change is a very polarizing issue in US politics. While Congress has not passed many climate-related bills over the past two decades, the House of Representatives has voted on many bills and resolutions related to climate issues, thus providing an opportunity to examine the factors that motivate politicians to support climate legislation.

In this study, Morton and colleagues investigate how votes on climate issues are impacted when climate legislation is linked with other environmental issues.

The authors compiled data from the League of Conservation Voters on 77 climate-focused legislative votes in the House of Representatives between 2007–2021. They observed that climate legislation tends to garner more votes when linked with legislation targeting air pollution or environmental justice, but climate legislation receives less support when associated with legislation relating to water pollution or transportation. In all cases, Democrats showed more support for climate legislation than Republicans.

These results suggest that linking climate action with other environmental initiatives affects the level of political support certain legislation receives, a valuable insight into what motivates US politicians to support climate action.

The authors acknowledge that this study uses only one organization’s definitions of climate- and environment-related legislation, and that future study might examine a broader range of environmental legislation, as well as other factors that might impact support for climate action.

The authors add, “Climate policy is a highly divisive issue in the U.S., so it’s important to understand where potential policy successes can happen. Issue linkages help legislators address the pressing global issue of climate change while bringing home a win for their district.”

NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered an unusual black-and-white striped rock on Mars in Jezero crater. This rock, named “Freya Castle” by scientists, has a distinctive texture and appearance that has not been observed before on the Red Planet. The discovery was made in September, using the camera mounted on the rover’s mast. Despite already leaving the area, the images were captured and analysed after Perseverance had moved on, sparking interest among scientists about the rock’s origin and composition.

What is Freya Castle?

Freya Castle measures about 20 cm across and is believed to have formed due to igneous or metamorphic processes. NASA scientists suggest that the stripes may have been caused by the crystallisation of magma or changes in rock due to high temperatures and pressure. Since the rock is different from the underlying bedrock, it likely originated from another location and rolled down into its current position in the crater.

The Hunt for More Clues

NASA representatives are eager to learn more about Freya Castle, hoping that as the rover continues its journey uphill, it will encounter more rocks of this kind. Perseverance is currently navigating the slopes of Jezero crater, which it first reached in February 2021. The rover’s Crater Rim Campaign marks its fifth major mission on Mars, focusing on discovering signs of ancient life and learning about the planet’s early geological history.

Perseverance’s Previous Discoveries

Throughout its time on Mars, Perseverance has made several fascinating finds, from ancient lake sediments to other unusual rock formations. Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, expressed excitement about what the team might find as the rover continues to explore new areas.

Neuroticism is one of the Big Five personality traits, characterized by a tendency to experience negative emotions like anxiety, fear, and frustration. Individuals with high levels of neuroticism are often more sensitive to stress and more likely to react negatively to challenges.

This trait can significantly impact job performance, mental health, and overall life satisfaction, and can also exacerbate mental disorders, including comorbidity—the co-existence of multiple disorders.

The adverse consequences of neuroticism are usually passed on to public health systems, where the overall economic burden of neuroticism has long surpassed the costs associated with treating common mental disorders.

For sales professionals, the job’s inherent uncertainties—such as long sales cycles, complex negotiations, and reliance on commissions—can create a breeding ground for neurotic tendencies. This is especially true for B2B (business to business) salespeople, whose work differs greatly from the consumer salespeople we all interact with.

A consumer salesperson might, for instance, sell you a car—the process would take a few hours at most, with minimal repercussions if the deal fell through. However, a B2B salesperson would be responsible for selling a large company a fleet of vehicles, or a wholesale shipment of parts to a car manufacturer.

These deals can take a long time to close, and involve large transactions, complex products, multiple stakeholders and unpredictable outcomes. All of this massively increases uncertainty.

B2B sales jobs and neuroticism

Our comprehensive study, which involved around 1,700 B2B salespeople and 24,000 non-sales professionals, found a clear link between B2B sales roles and increased neuroticism. The research shows that the constant uncertainty in B2B sales jobs triggers defensive emotional responses which, when activated frequently, can reinforce and heighten neuroticism over time.

Certain features of B2B sales jobs are at the root of this trend:

• Complex customer needs: B2B salespeople often deal with clients who have multifaceted requirements that need tailored solutions. This can lead to prolonged decision-making processes and uncertain outcomes.

• Long sales cycles: B2B sales cycles can last months, with success dependent on numerous variables, including the decisions of various stakeholders within the client’s organization.

• Negotiation toughness: B2B sales often involve tough negotiations with clients who are experienced in securing the best deals. This can create a high-pressure environment where the salesperson’s success is constantly under threat.

• Variable Compensation: Many sales roles are heavily reliant on commissions, meaning that financial stability is directly tied to performance. This uncertainty can exacerbate stress and anxiety, particularly during periods of low sales.

Mental health and safety: lessons from construction work

The harmful effects of chronic uncertainty in sales work—namely, a change in personality that may lead to mental disorders—should be treated, in essence, like any other workplace hazard.

Just as the construction industry takes steps to protect workers from physical harm, corporate organizations should consider protecting their employees from psychological harm, particularly in high-pressure roles like B2B sales.

While construction workers wear helmets and safety gear, sales professionals need mental and emotional safeguards to mitigate the risks associated with their work.

The first step for both individuals and companies is to acknowledge the risks associated with B2B sales roles. For employers, this means recognizing that these roles can have a significant impact on mental health—similar to how some jobs might carry physical risks—and back this up by offering support to employees. For employees, this means having access to the facts and using them to make informed career choices, as well as taking their own mental health into consideration when accepting new work.

Sales organizations can take proactive steps to support their employees’ mental health. This might include offering mindfulness programs, gym memberships, or access to mental health counseling, as well as making sure employees have time to use these services. Providing paid personal days may also allow employees to take time off when they need a mental health break, promoting a healthier work-life balance and helping prevent an increase in neuroticism.

Managers can also play a crucial role by redesigning sales roles to reduce the factors that contribute to uncertainty and neuroticism. This might involve simplifying sales targets, offering clearer feedback, or providing more stable compensation plans to make salespeople less dependent on commissions.

Regular mental health checkups shosuld also be required. Just as safety inspections are routine (and often required by law) in physically demanding jobs, psychological assessments should be a standard practice in sales organizations. By regularly assessing employees’ levels of neuroticism and other personality traits, companies can identify when intervention is needed.

Finally, offering training programs that equip salespeople with the skills to handle long sales cycles and tough negotiations can serve as both a development tool and a preventive measure against neuroticism. These programs not only enhance job performance, but also provide employees with strategies to manage the stressors that contribute to psychological harm.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

SpaceX’s upcoming Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed because of the arrival of Tropical Storm Helene. Originally set to launch on September 26th from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the launch is now delayed by at least two days. The tropical storm is expected to escalate into a Category 3 hurricane and make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast. As a result, NASA and SpaceX are aiming for a new launch window on Saturday, 28 September, at 1:17 p.m. EDT (1717 GMT), subject to weather conditions.

Precautionary Measures in Place

Although the storm will impact Florida’s panhandle, its wide reach has led to warnings about strong winds and heavy rain on the eastern coast, where Cape Canaveral is located. NASA’s statement highlighted the preparations in place, including the precautionary return of the rocket-capsule combo to the hangar. The hardware was moved to the launch pad on 24 September, and mission rehearsals are ongoing ahead of the rescheduled launch date.

Crew Details for the Mission

The Crew-9 mission will send NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the ISS, where they will remain for approximately five months, returning in February 2025. The Falcon 9 rocket will carry the Crew Dragon capsule, named Freedom, and is typically equipped to carry four astronauts. However, two seats on this flight have been reserved for Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are scheduled to return from the ISS after arriving in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule.

The launch, once rescheduled, will mark SpaceX’s ninth operational astronaut mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. While Boeing is also a part of this programme, delays in its Starliner capsule’s crewed missions have yet to be resolved.

There is little doubt that historical racism has influenced the content and composition of several famous figurative paintings. In March 2024, this could be seen in the debate around the exhibition of the Rex Whistler mural, The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats (1927), at the Tate Britain. Critics asked whether such artworks should remain on public display.

There are several shocking elements of Rex Whistler’s mural, originally commissioned by the Tate as “decoration for the new refreshment room,” including the image of a black child chained to a horse and cart as it moves at speed. The debate raises the question—does the ongoing presence of artworks like this in public spaces serve to confront or maintain historical racist views?

In some instances, the racist attitudes behind such paintings have been explicitly expressed by artists or painting owners, making them well-documented. Take, for example, John Trumbull (1715–1787), a painter who had several enslaved people living in his household. Another example is Gilbert Winter Moss (1828–1899), a banker who owned Richard Ansdell’s painting The Hunted Slaves (1861). According to the UCL Legacies of Slavery database, Moss’s family was deeply involved in the slave trade. In other cases, things aren’t so clear-cut.

But even if not explicitly expressed, racist attitudes may have been implicitly held, to an extent that they were able to influence the creative process. Implicitly held racial attitudes are mental associations that, when triggered by race, can guide people’s judgment and actions. As a researcher in psychology, I wanted to explore if implicitly held racial attitudes affect the viewing of paintings when the images themselves make no suggestion of racial inequality.

Alongside my colleagues, I have explored this question in a series of recent studies of portraits of black and white people. In one study, we used gaze-mapping technology to measure the eye movements made by visitors to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

The measurement of when and where our eyes move, and how long they focus on specific objects, provides a time-sensitive index on what is important to viewers. We measured the eye movements of the visitors to the gallery who agreed to take part in our study as they looked at a set of five portraits of black sitters (including Two Jamaican Girls by Augustus John, 1937) and five portraits of white sitters (including Interior at Paddington by Lucian Freud, 1951).

Their task was to say how much pleasure they experienced when looking at each painting. We also assessed the visitors to the gallery on their implicit racial attitudes and actual contact with different racial communities.

Our results

Our study showed that visitors to the gallery who reported little contact with black people and who held negative implicit racial attitudes reported experiencing little pleasure when viewing paintings showing black sitters.

Perhaps more surprisingly, though they reported little pleasure, these visitors focused their attention more on the faces of the black sitters than others did. The results suggest that little contact with black people, combined with holding negative implicit racial attitudes, can be associated with an undue focus on black faces when viewing these paintings.

We believe our findings suggest that negative implicit racial attitudes have not only influenced the historical content and composition of some paintings, but continue to exert an influence on the viewing of paintings in the present day. Moreover, the influence of negative implicit racial attitudes on the viewing of paintings exerts its effect even when the images themselves are quite neutral.

Whether or not racist paintings are removed from public spaces, our results show that implicit racial attitudes will, for some viewers, continue to exert an influence on their perception of paintings representing black people and culture.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.