Implicit Association Test

[Borachio]

Are you a racist without knowing it?

Here is the test.

I found it very disturbing.

It is well known that people don't always 'speak their minds', and it is suspected that people don't always 'know their minds'. Understanding such divergences is important to scientific psychology.

This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short.

Here's my result for the race test.

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

The present understanding of the difference between implicit and explicit (conscious) beliefs is that the former reflects one's everyday experience, and the latter reflects what people decide they believe about that experience. For example, if a person grows up hearing that purple people are dangerous, and is regularly exposed to cultural messages about dangerous purple people, then the mind will form an association between danger and purple people. Then, if that person meets purple people and decides that they are not dangerous after all, the conscious belief might change. However, the associations that were learned growing up do not easily disappear from the mind. The person may continue to possess implicit associations linking purple people with danger despite the conscious change of heart. For further background on the difference between implicit responses and explicit (conscious) beliefs, see this paper.

I was really not expecting that!

I think the insect flower thing works much the same. But I'm not sure why it's there and I haven't completed it. Yet.

 

[Ryika]

So I started by saying that I basically hate black people and love white people, then I tried to do everything to seem like someone who legitimately hates black people by waiting whenever a black guy was on screen and messing up whenever black people and good words were put into the same category do and then the test tells me this:

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

Your result was computed by comparing how quickly you could sort the items into their groups when White People and good words were together versus when black people and Good Words were together. Our data shows that most people implicitly prefer White People to Black People - i.e., they are faster sorting when good words and White People go with the same key including people that consciously have no preference between different races. Click continue below for some possible explanations of these results.

Moderate automatic preference? I did my best to be the worst racist I can be and that's all the test is willing to give me? MODERATE?! This test is rigged.

It's also pretty boring.

 

[Borachio]

OK

Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for FLOWERS compared to INSECTS.

I still don't understand why it's there.

And as far as I know flowers exist because insects do. Or is it vice versa?

 

[Ryika]

You're that kind of person who would rather kill a bee that has found its way into your home instead of catching it and bringing it back outside, aren't you?

 

[Borachio]

No. I don't think so. I spend quite some time chasing bees inside the house with a glass and pieces of paper.

And bees, incidentally, are possibly my very favourite insect.

Flowers, on the other hand, I find boring after about four days of looking at them.

But maybe this test doesn't function at all. For all I know.

(Quite why the test thinks a centipede is an insect, I don't know.)

 

[Ryika]

Well, here's the deal:
You may THINK you're not biased against bees and your actions may suggest that you're not biased against bees, but the test has shown that you are indeed implicitly biased against bees. Shame. On. You!.

 

[Borachio]

I have to admit that your logic is impeccable.

And I was expecting to be biased against black people as well. (I thought "Oh well, I'm probably a racist after all.")

I wonder if I'd get the same results a second time.

 

[Ryika]

But let's be serious for a moment: I actually already did that test back when some big Youtuber with the Initials SoA, whoever that may be, made a video about those tests and interestingly enough my result was the same as you got.

Which, if that whole "implicit bias"-thing is real makes no sense, because I'm white, I've not had much contact with black people in my life (a lot with brown people though), a dislike the Black Lies Matter movement, have been arguing against people who claim that black people are angels and that their increased crime rates are all because of racist cops, and the black Youtubers that I'm subscribed to I don't really see as black people but rather as content creators just like everybody else that I'm subscribed to.

I also watched tons of TV when I was younger, black representation in those shows was practically zero (with the exception of the Prince of Bel Air). And I watched tons of movies without a black cast.

My implicit bias against black people should go through the roof. But it doesn't for some reason.

 

[warpus]

Of course I'm racist, if we're picking basketball teams I will pick the tall black guys first, even if I have no idea if they've ever played before, I will pick the guy with a German accent for my soccer team without knowing anything about him, if I'm instead putting together a long-distance running team I will pick a Kenyan if there are any, for a kickboxing team I will always pick Thais first if possible, and for a skiing competition Norwegians are at the top of my list. The list goes on and on.

I couldn't really take the test because it asks me which people I prefer more, and without any context I can't pick anything. I don't prefer Europeans to Africans or Africans of Europeans. What does that even mean? People's personalities can vary wildly from butthole to pleasant to whatever, this spans genders and races and everything else, I would vote "I prefer none of these groups" or "I prefer the nice Europeans and Africans and not the butthole ones" but that isn't an option.

I do subconsciously prefer certain groups depending on what the activity is, like I said, but I don't just like one group over the other because I don't like darker skin or whatever. Come on.

 

[Ryika]

And if I need a lawyer I'll start looking at a Synagogue.

 

[warpus]

Everyone can be a lawyer (in theory), it is something that's limited by mainly your mental faculties. I would not presume that a Polish lawyer is any better than an African lawyer or vice versa for that reason.

But if there's a blubber eating competition I am looking at the Eskimo, that guy's going to be on the winning team for sure.

 

[Ryika]

Yeah, everyone can be a lawyer, but if you want a really good one, get a jew.

...interestingly enough, from a quick google search, this stereotype seems to hold true in numbers, several sources are citing Jewish scholarly tradition - the same reason why so many Nobel Price Winners are Jews - as a strong influence.

 

[The_J]

The test is called "implicit", but basically asks all the time if you hate black people.
I mean... o_O

 

[Daw]

Your result was computed by comparing how quickly you could sort the items into their groups when White People and good words were together versus when black people and Good Words were together.

Because "white people and good words" combination went first I somewhat got used to it, so the "black people and good words" combination going second took me some time to readjust.

Needless to say, my result suggests a strong automatic preference for White People over Black People.

I am also totally prejudiced against red color and circles, which was shown by a similar test (the task was to sort shapes and colors similarly) I underwent within psychology course during my 2nd year at the uni. That test though was only to assess how fast the individual can switch from doing something to doing something else.

Since then I knew I was slow at switching and why, but it's interesting to know it also makes me a racist.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

I couldn't really take the test because it asks me which people I prefer more, and without any context I can't pick anything. I don't prefer Europeans to Africans or Africans of Europeans. What does that even mean? People's personalities can vary wildly from butthole to pleasant to whatever, this spans genders and races and everything else, I would vote "I prefer none of these groups" or "I prefer the nice Europeans and Africans and not the butthole ones" but that isn't an option.

I haven't looked at the test, but you seriously HAVE to pick a group of people that you prefer? You can't opt out of that question or say "none"?

 

[Tahuti]

"Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for White People over Black People."

Quite sad to discover that your mind is basically hardwired for BS.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Even if this test is reliable (which it doesn't sound as if it is), I don't think anyone should feel as though they have to beat themselves up for the "original sin" of having evolved with an intrinsic in-group bias, which actually makes perfect sense for social, tribal animals who don't like getting beaten to death with rocks. But then humans aren't proud of their ancestors and rarely invite them round to dinner.

 

[Ryika]

Just imagine the same test, but instead of pictures of black and white people you get pictures of your wife/best friend/child/whatever vs. strangers of your own skin color. I'm pretty sure the results would show even greater biases.

And nobody would feel bad about it.

I think the one thing those tests can really show is that we can never really completely get rid of biases in our society but that's hardly news.

Anyway, did the test again - this time seriously again - and I got this:

Your data suggest no automatic preference between Black People and White People.

(An interesting fact to note is that the test changes the tasks around between attempts. Not sure if it automatically chooses patterns to "pin down" your result, or if it's randomized. /edit: It's randomized, even says so in the end. Me blind.)

So my results are now:
- 1x Racial Bias against white people (my own skin color)
- 1x no Racial Bias against anyone
(- And the time I intentionally tried to manipulate it I managed to have a Racial Bias against black people)

I find the validity of that specific test to be very questionable based on my own results (and yeah, that's not exactly a very big sample size, I'm aware of that ).

 

[warpus]

The test is called "implicit", but basically asks all the time if you hate black people.
I mean... o_O

Yeah, I couldn't get past the first question, as the quiz for some reason seems to assume it's normal to think that you prefer a group of people over another group of people just because of their skin colour, and doesn't even give you a "no preference" option which I would expect most sane people to go with.

As such I'm going to have to assume that the quiz was built by friggin racists

I haven't looked at the test, but you seriously HAVE to pick a group of people that you prefer? You can't opt out of that question or say "none"?

Yeah, exactly, all the options are racist and you have to pick one of them. There is no "I'm not actually racist" option.

 

[REDY]

I actively googled it some weeks ago. The results confirmed what I have thought, mild preference of black people.