Adaptive unconscious
Another test was even more startling. Black college students were given 20 questions from the Graduate Record Examination, a standard test used for entry to graduate schools in the U.S.A. Students were given a pretest questionnaire. One group were asked to identify their race; the other was not. The first group scores were half that of the second group. The experimenters later asked whether the question about their race affected them. They all said 'no' and added something like "You know, I just don't think I'm smart enough to be here".p59 Of course, this is of the greatest significance socially. Notice that, once again, the individuals did not notice consciously what had happened unconsciously.