Implicit Association Test
 

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
(Go to Demonstration)

I sent this out among my friends a couple of years ago, and recently somone asked for the link again.

I found the black vs. white race test the most interesting. Take any or all, and post your results.

My results:

I unfortunately still have a moderate preference for White-Americans than for Black Americans. I suppose knowledge is empowering, because my last test showed a high preference for whites over blacks. Since then, I've tried to always watch out for any stereotypes that unconciously popped into my head.

I think the reason I might have had this preference is that my family lived a year in Nigera when I was much younger, and our compound was attacked by armed Nigerian men looking to steal. My parents always warned us about to talking to "strange" black men, probably because they feared kidnappings, and to them the main threat seemed to come from black Americans. Sigh, my parents are probably high preference for whites, though they'd have super high preference for Indians, while I'm actually, being somewhat Americanized, more likely to prefer whites and Asians to Indians. and security was pretty tight among the rich families there. When I came to the US from India, my thoughts on blacks were probably more susceptible to reinforcement by the views in the media, having lived in a predominantly white and asian neighborhood.

I'm still trying to work on my biases. What are yours?

Edit:

This seemed like the most important question in the FAQ.

If my IAT shows automatic White preference, does that mean that I'm prejudiced?
Answer: This is a very important question. Social psychologists use the word 'prejudiced' to describe people who endorse or approve of negative attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward various out-groups. Many people who show automatic White preference on the Black-White IAT are not prejudiced by this definition. These people are apparently able to function in non-prejudiced fashion partly by making active efforts to prevent their automatic White preference from producing discriminatory behavior. However, when they relax these active efforts, these non-prejudiced people may be likely to show discrimination in thought or behavior. The question of relation between implicit and explicit attitudes is of strong interest to social psychologists, several of whom are doing research on that question for race-related attitudes.

Here's the link for the FAQ.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/faqs.html

Evidently I don't have any. I showed little to no automatic preference between white Americans and black Americans.

Living where I do, and given how I was raised, I'm not at all surprised.

Wow, I have a strong preference for black Americans over white Americans. I would have assumed some implicit racism, but good for me, I guess!

No surprise I strongly prefer Bill Clinton over George Bush.

I have no age preference, and I slightly associate Asians with America more than Europeans with American.

I have a slight automatic preference for gay people.

I'm a good little liberal!!! :lol:

I show a moderate preference for white people. This doesn't surprise me in the slightest--I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are like three black people in Salt Lake City, Utah. When I moved to North Carolina it took some serious adjusting for me to even be marginally comfortable around black people.

Just like the FAQ says, I find it useful and empowering to know that I'm prejudiced. At least I know where it comes from. I know that it's very likely to be there when I interact with a black person, so I can catch it in the act, rather than letting it run me.

I really don't think there's anything "wrong" with having an innate preference. I think it's very likely that every person on the planet has an innate preference for people like them. That's not the problem. The problem is when they let that preference spill over into behavior.

Your data suggest a strong association of European American with Good and African American with Bad compared to African American with Good and European American with Bad.

---

Apparently that means that I like white people more than black people. Being black, that's kinda' a surprise. Of course, when I think about it that would make sense, as I've pretty much always lived in a white neighborhood, gone to a predominantly white school and tend to hang out with predominantly white, Asian and hispanic crowds.

I took the age test:
Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Young compared to Old.
On the race test:
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for Black compared to White.

Give it time ;)

I did a black-white test some time ago. Despite their explanation I think there was a flaw in how they did it (assuming it’s the same test still). I did the test where whites were the positive and blacks the negative first. I treated it much like a computer game. When they switched it I did get confused once or twice, but I wasn't really looking at the pictures, just for the pattern. They say that they correct for it, but I know it would have been easier for me the other way around, I'd expect a mild black rather than mild white preference.

The real issue is do these tests really mean anything, and that I'm not sure of. Trying to understand the mind is quite difficult, and while these types of test are clever, what they are really measuring is open to debate.

Edit: Just to be clear I'm not saying they don't mesaure bias I just don't have the facts behind them to be confident as its not my field and many clever things are shown to not really work in the end.

Strange results, methinks:
Your data suggest a moderate association of African American with Good and European American with Bad compared to European American with Good and African American with Bad.

Apparently I have a slight preference for blacks over whites, a moderate preference for Asians over whites, a slight preference for gays over straights, and little or no preference for young/old.

I'd assume that the fact that I'm married to an Asian woman might account for my having developed an automatic association with good there, and I'm not surprised at the gay/straight thing either. I'm kinda immersed in that due to the makeup of my family and my history with gay and straight people, particularly the disparity between how I've typically been treated by straight guys and gay guys. I hope I don't act on these automatic assumptions, as I do actively try not to take status into account as the primary factor in how I treat people.

Gilda

Site is down at this time.

Race Test:
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for White American compared to African American.

Weight Test:
Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Thin People and Fat People.

President Test
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for Franklin D. Roosevelt compared to George W. Bush... SLIGHT?????

Gay Test:
Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Straight People and Gay People.

I'm just glad I'm not subconsciencously extremely biased about some of them. :P :P

Apparently:

You have completed the Black-White IAT.
The line immediately below summarizes the results of your task performance.

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

Really odd - I'd have myself down as favouring white people (I am white, and grew up with almost no people that were not white around me) I wonder how much I was overcompensating for my own realisation of bias?

Interesting experiments there though.

Just gone and done another one...

You have completed the Darker Skin-Lighter Skin IAT.
The line immediately below summarizes the results of your task performance.

Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Light Skin compared to Dark Skin.

So on ballance, I'm probably neutral :)

Race: Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for White American compared to African American.
Age: Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Old and Young.
President: Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Thomas Jefferson compared to George W. Bush.

I don't think it works for most people. Certainly didnt work for me. When they switched my brain had already gotten too used to the other way. I'm not good at adapting fast though once I have time to adapt I can specialize with the best. To really get accurate results they'd need to put a week or more of time between the times you switched.