Question: What behavioral term can be used to describe the unequal treatment of individuals based solely on the color of their skin?
Answer: Stimulus generalization.
I’d like to discuss racial injustice and inequality, biases, and negative stereotypes through the lens of ABA. I think this is important in general, but it is also a great way to generalize the task list vocabulary in more salient ways, not just in those applied contexts.
Stimulus generalization is when different stimuli evoke the same behavior or the same response because those stimuli share a common attribute or feature. Biases and stereotypes are born through the idea that common attributes like skin color, gender, race, religion, and nationality are actually defining features of an individual and therefore warrant a specific response towards those individuals because of this one common attribute. If you have ever looked at someone and decided something about them, positive or negative, based on a feature that you associate with something negative or positive, and that impacted your behavior towards them or your response, you have exhibited stimulus generalization. You’ve stereotyped, or you’ve responded in a biased manner.
There are two sides to these types of generalizations. They could be negative, which is the unfair treatment of people just because of their skin color. And there’s also a positive side, which is also unfair treatment, but it’s the unfair positive treatment of people just because of their skin color. By looking at things this way, maybe we can be part of change– help change how law enforcement treats people of color or how the judicial system punishes people of color more harshly and even some of the microaggressions that have been directed at this community. This one specific negative response and behaviors are all based on one attribute— skin color.