Implicit Association Tests

[Hotman]

Try the race test on implicit.harvard.edu, and post your results. It measures your preference based on speed of key presses.

I got a moderate automatic preference to European Americans over African Americans

I'd honestly be interested in seeing the results of some of our left-leaning posters - interestingly, Malcolm Gladwell (author of Blink, half caste, who wrote about this) scored a preference to European despite having a jamaican mum, and put it down to society,

 

[Eastblack]

Same result, not sure what this proves to be honest. Seems to me that I only got three red Xs so clearly I can distinguish an apparent black face from an apparent white face.

 

[Hotman]

It's supposed to measure the difference between when "good" and "euro-am" are together, vs "good" and "afro-am", based on the length of time and number of mistakes made.

 

[Eastblack]

Just seems like a big hole in the Harvard budget to me... my 'preference' seems determined by how quickly I can asimilate the images or words. Not sure how scientific that is.

 

[Hotman]

The only way to see if it is scientific is to do the tests a few times and see if the results are consistent - I haven't done this, but according to Gladwell he tried the tests a few times in an attempt to "repair" his score

 

[Eastblack]

I'll try again tomorrow when I've got a clearer head. BUT, I do tend to be a bit of a sceptic when it comes to this sort of thing. Racial bias shouldn't be measured upon auto reaction. Maybe that's why I'm not a psyhologist..!

 

[Hotman]

This has all come from a book called Blink, suprisingly about auto reaction, and the importance of it.

 

[Pubey]

"Little to no automatic preference between White people and Black people."

 

[Hotman]

"Little to no automatic preference between White people and Black people."

you don't count Afro head

 

[Pubey]

did people get the Good/White combined option first, and then the Black/Bad option... I'd guess the study would mix that up to account for that fact that. Personally I think it's quite interesting. It's trying to find if people have an instant reaction or preference to white/black people.

 

[Eastblack]

But I still don't understand how my pressing the I or E key means I have a 'preference' for one race, or for that matter - gender, sexuality etc.

I'm no leftie, but I work with several black or 'ethnic' Americans and white Americans, all of which are far better educated than me. Generally the black or ethnic ones are far nicer than the others, a lot more sociable and genuine. Perhaps I should do more of the other tests to better understand this.

 

[EastStandBlue]

did people get the Good/White combined option first, and then the Black/Bad option... I'd guess the study would mix that up to account for that fact that. Personally I think it's quite interesting. It's trying to find if people have an instant reaction or preference to white/black people.

I got the Good/Black Bad/White combination first and got Little to no preference... Interesting, but I can see where Eastblack is coming from in terms of key-bashing.

 

[osymandus]

Probably test more associated symbols really . At the end of teh day yor educated to react on your experience to the way you perceive people . How skwed would it be with people who had slow refelxs ?

 

[WestRoadShrimper]

Little to no preference - mind you, I'd like to know how much the questionnaire at the end influences this statement or if it is indeed fully down to the button pressing.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

But I still don't understand how my pressing the I or E key means I have a 'preference' for one race, or for that matter - gender, sexuality etc.

I'm no leftie, but I work with several black or 'ethnic' Americans and white Americans, all of which are far better educated than me. Generally the black or ethnic ones are far nicer than the others, a lot more sociable and genuine. Perhaps I should do more of the other tests to better understand this.

Your mind can cope easier with one thing at a time. If you equate black to bad and white to good, when you have to put good and black together and bad and white, you have conflicting messages which the brain needs to interpret. This is then compared to your times for white and good and black and bad.

FWIW, I got a slight preference for white.

 

[southendkid]

I made too many errors, but surely that means I don't associate good and bad with race which is why i became confused?

 

[Hotman]

i'd be interested in how the results change if it started Afro-Good then switched the other way, rather than starting Afro-Bad - I certainly found the second round of answers harder, as I'd already got used to one pattern, and had to think more about it.

 

[Eastblack]

i'd be interested in how the results change if it started Afro-Good then switched the other way, rather than starting Afro-Bad - I certainly found the second round of answers harder, as I'd already got used to one pattern, and had to think more about it.

This is the key to it I feel. It is no longer a repetitive process, therefore your reactions are slowed. I had white / good for he first round.

 

[MK Shrimper]

'there were too many errors to determine a result'.

I'm amazed this made through as research to be honest, there's far too many unknown factors that could influence the result - left/right handed, speed of PC, mental state of the participant.

Utter bunk and I though Harvard was supposedly one of the best Universities in the world?

 

[Hotman]

'there were too many errors to determine a result'.

I'm amazed this made through as research to be honest, there's far too many unknown factors that could influence the result - left/right handed, speed of PC, mental state of the participant.

Utter bunk and I though Harvard was supposedly one of the best Universities in the world?

How would the speed of your pc, or mental state, significantly change during the test when you are advised to close all running programs, and be away from distractions?