After a series of racist incidents came to light on social media and media channels, the government is taking steps to address racial discrimination, as outlined by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech on 27 August 2021. Weeks earlier, President Halimah Yacob had commented: "We wonder whether these are one-off incidents or reflective of a larger problem." One way to find out is to investigate. Evidence is already emerging about a related type of bias – skin tone bias.
Colourism is a social system that allocates privilege according to skin tone, such that persons with darker skin tone become disadvantaged relative to persons with lighter skin tone. Most research on colourism comes from the Americas, where the phenomenon is linked to European colonialism and to the institution of slavery.
World versus Asia
It is widely believed that colourism is also prevalent in Asia. However, its origins are more obscure and contemporary patterns less studied. Research studies are typically qualitative, often focusing on the demand for skin-lightening products and advertising that associates light skin with positive characteristics.
To fill this gap in the literature, I conducted a study with US-based social psychologist Jacqueline Chen, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Race and Social Problems. First, we made use of publicly-available data from Project Implicit, a collaboration between psychologists at the University of Washington, Harvard University, and University of Virginia.
Thousands of people across the world have taken the Implicit Associations Test (IAT), which measures the extent they associate dark skin tone with negative concepts and light skin tone with positive concepts. Participants are asked to categorise words as good or bad and faces as dark or light.
In one part of the test, good words and dark faces share the same key on the keyboard, while bad words and light faces share the same key. In another part of the test, good words and light faces share the same key, while bad words and dark faces share the same key. The IAT relies on the notion that the task is easier (and faster) when closely associated items share the same key.
In our analysis, East Asia emerged as the world region with the highest level of skin tone bias. This result was driven by women. East Asia was the only region where women had roughly the same level of bias as men. Elsewhere, men were more biased than women.
Of course, even if an individual associates dark skin tone with negative concepts and light skin tone with positive concepts, it does not say much about how he or she would actually behave toward people with different skin tones.
Focusing on Singapore
Then, we conducted a series of experiments in Singapore. In the experiments, we asked NUS students to evaluate 12 profiles of (fictitious) job applicants for an entry-level position. Each profile consisted of qualifications (education/work experiences) and a photo. The qualifications were presented in a random order, and the photos were randomly allocated to the qualifications.
All job candidates were identified as Chinese Singaporeans. They were assigned a Chinese family name, a Chinese given name, and an English given name. However, photos of applicants were computer-manipulated to represent a range of skin tones. Participants viewed the dark version of 4 photos, the medium version of 4 photos, and the light version of 4 photos.
Analysing the data, we discovered a modestly sized bias against dark- and medium-skinned applicants relative to light-skinned applicants, driven primarily by female participants. Moreover, female participants from poorer families displayed higher levels of bias than female participants from richer families.
We also found that the size of the bias became larger when the range of applicant qualifications was narrower. That is, participants relied more on appearance to guide their judgments when it was more difficult to rank applicants by their credentials alone.
Moving Forward
The study presented evidence of colourism in an Asian context and validates the government's efforts to combat bias in Singapore. To pass legislation to maintain racial harmony nudges society in the right direction.
While the government's actions are laudable, significant and sustainable change will require the active involvement of multiple stakeholders including the private sector, community groups, and individual citizens. For instance, companies can do their part by providing diversity training to employees and by improving hiring practices to minimise bias.
Individuals play an important role too. In Singapore, one encounters people who are different every day. Interactions in common spaces like food centres and public transport as well as in schools and workplaces are opportunities to practice mutual respect (yes, practice because building trust and understanding is not easy).
It may even be worth revisiting the principles of the National Courtesy Campaign launched by the (former) Ministry of Culture in 1979. The need to have a more empathetic society is as true today as it was then.
Indeed, recent events have shown that racial and other forms of discrimination are worthy of further study in Singapore. Research can help to eliminate discrimination and its negative effects by changing mindsets and informing public policy decisions. To reduce bias would be an achievement of both equity and efficiency.