ITHACA-Two Cornell researchers are arguing that “unconscious bias” may prevent people from voting for Presidential Candidate Barack Obama.

According to the Ithaca Journal:

Law professor Jeff Rachlinski and Greg Parks, a 2008 Ph.D. graduate from Cornell's law school, are co-authoring an article on the effect of unconscious race and gender bias on the presidential race …

Unconscious bias is distinguishable from racism or sexism because it is not explicit, and the person carrying it is unaware of its effect on their actions, Parks said. While racism involves animosity and awareness, a person displaying an unconscious bias will sometimes vehemently deny they lean one way or another, Rachlinski said.

Rachlinski and Parks alleged that many people unconsciously view black faces more negatively than white ones and that this may make them less likely to vote for Obama, despite his message of change:

“People talk about the need for change, but when a new candidate gets on the scene, suddenly experience starts to matter,” Rachlinski said. “(Bias) changes the field…”

The duo also told the Journal that McCain’s campaign is exploiting racism by criticizing Obama’s lack of experience:

An example is the commercials the McCain campaign has made about Obama, which use words such as ‘risky' and ‘dangerous' to describe the Democratic candidate. Words such as that resonate with the unconscious bias, the researchers argue.

“Raising a question like, ‘Who is the ‘real' Barack Obama?'... has consequences,” Parks said. “These raise unconscious concerns....”

The researchers also alleged that a person who calls the Democrat candidate by his full name, “Barack Hussein Obama” is a “lunatic,” the paper reported.

According to the Journal, the Rachlinski and Parks presented their research to a group of approximately forty people at Cornell’s Sage Chapel on Wednesday (October 15).