Implicit Association Test

Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for Thin People compared to Fat People.

Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Canada compared to the United States.

Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Old and Young.

Your data suggest little or no association between Female and Male with Science and Liberal Arts.

Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for White People compared to Black People.

Hitch-Hiker wrote:

Looks interesting, I must go through them properly later on. Right now I'm in work though.

I honestly didn't think I'd be very biased towards White people over Blacks. But I guess I don't get a lot of exposure to blacks.

Last night I was out at a bar that was full of black people and it didn't bother me one bit. One of the girls I was with expressed her discomfort though.

angelica wrote:

Maybe you've heard of Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author (who grew up a mile away from me, went to high school with me and was on my school bus!). He wrote the books "The Tipping Point" and "Blink".

You might find his work interesting. "Blink" actually talks about how we make unconscious decisions all the time, without realizing it. He's considered one of the most influential people of our time. Anyway, he is half black on his mother's side, and he talks about taking this IAT test in the book "Blink", where he also comes up as naturally biased against blacks, which if memory serves me, he attributes to the cultural values we internalize growing up. i.e. Blacks being portrayed poorly all around, on TV, etc.

One of the scientists Mahzarin Banaji stated that it works that way aswell. Black people may be implicitly bias towards blacks as well. Implicitly meaning that it occurs on a subconcious level. I think it has to do with the association of networks within the brain which are inevitably created by external associations. Banaji says that exposure to these groups can correct some of the biases. For example, if I chilled out with Obama I'd lose some of my automatic response to whites. She stated that if one good thing has come from the Bush Administration, it's the presence of Condoleeza Rice and Collin Powell.

Actually, I should argue that the test doesn't actually show a bias. But rather an association. Since the IAT tests for an association of negative and positive words with particular cultural differences. I can't figure out for the life of me how I am at all bias against blacks. But I can understand how I may have negative associations in my brain. I don't believe this means an explicit prejudice at all.

Though Banaji uses an example of looters in the wake of Katrina. She has two news articles from the Associated Press, in one article the "takers" are black, thuggish looking people and are called "looters", while in the second example they are white, well-dressed and carrying a newspaper and they are called "finders". That's just a little bit of bias there.