There are some interesting “Implicit Association Tests” you can take, at Harvard University’s website.
Although I like to think of myself as racially unbiased, one of the tests revealed that I find it easier to associate European Americans with good and African Americans with bad. (That’s the “Race IAT”.) Try it! I think you’ll be surprised at what you learn about yourself.
See the first comment below for some details about the race test.
Here’s a summary of the Race IAT by Michael Shermer, publisher and editor of “Skeptic” magazine:
The race test firsts asks you to sort black and white faces into one of two categories: European American and African American. Easy. Next you are asked to sort a list of words (Joy, Terrible, Love, Agony, Peace, Horrible, Wonderful, Nasty, Pleasure, Evil, Glorious, Awful, Laughter, Failure, Happy, Hurt) into one of two categories: Good and Bad. No problem.
The next task is a little more complicated. The words and black and white faces appear on the screen one at a time, and you sort them into one of these categories: African American/Good or European American/Bad. Again you match the words with the concepts of good or bad, and faces with national origin. So the word “joy†would go into the first category and a white face would go into the second category. This sorting goes noticeably slower, but you might expect that since the combined categories are more cognitively complex.
Unfortunately, the final sorting task puts the lie to that rationalization: This time you sort the words and faces into the categories European American/Good or African American/Bad. Tellingly (and distressingly) this sort goes much faster than the previous sort. I was much quicker to associate words like “joy,†“love,†and “pleasure†with European American/Good than I did with African American/Good.
…
It turns out that this subconscious association of good with European Americans is true for everyone, even African Americans, no matter how color blind we all claim to be. Such is the power of culture.
Comment by Daryl — December 14, 2006 @ 12:01 pm
This article was in the Los Angeles Democrat Times a few weeks ago. The whole test is designed to have the outcome it does. Blacks have about a 50% white preference. He doesn’t really know why that is in his FAQ.
“Data collected from this website consistently reveal approximately even numbers of Black respondents showing a pro-White bias as show a pro-Black bias.”
I think it’s because this test is designed to show people are prejudiced even when they are not.
Comment by Don — December 14, 2006 @ 12:17 pm
I disagree that it is designed to show prejudice, especially since the order of the tests is randomized from person to person, with some seeing “good” and “European” together first, while some see “Bad” and “European” together first.
I don’t see how it could be designed to falsely show non-existent prejudice, since it is quite symmetric with respect to both the races and the good/bad words.
Comment by Daryl — December 14, 2006 @ 4:29 pm
“Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for African American compared to European American.”
That’s what I got on the test. I did not do anything specific to alter the outcome other than take the test and pay close attention to whether it was a word or a face and which key I needed to press.
Comment by Don — December 14, 2006 @ 7:16 pm
So if you are correct does that mean this “evil” conservative is less prejudiced than a “caring” liberal?
I’ll have to see how I do on some of the other tests.
Comment by Don — December 14, 2006 @ 7:19 pm
Don, your results DO show prejudice. They show preference for African Americans over European Americans.
Comment by Donna — December 14, 2006 @ 8:35 pm
Oops! You found me out. I secretly dislike all you white folks.
rubbish
Comment by Don — December 14, 2006 @ 9:19 pm
Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between European American and African American.
I think you have to be a detailed person and make few mistakes!
Or I truly am not a racist.
Comment by Heather — December 14, 2006 @ 9:26 pm
Funny, I also show no preference to fat vs. thin. I really think it has to do with logic and ability to sort things quickly and not your hidden thoughts.
Comment by Heather — December 14, 2006 @ 9:36 pm
Gee, maybe I’m the only subconsciously prejudiced one in the family!
Are you guys answering as quickly as possible in each case? Sure, if you take your time you can get them all right and have equal scores, or even skew it incorrectly by deliberately taking more time on one test than another (I’m not suggesting anyone was doing this). But the idea is to answer quickly with as little thought as possible. Push yourself.
The idea is not to fool the test, but to learn something about yourself.
Comment by Daryl — December 14, 2006 @ 10:37 pm
No. As Donna pointed out I am also prejudiced according to my result.
One thing I did was when it got to where African American and Good were together I put a picture of black is good in my head before I started. I didn’t consciously do that when white and good were together. Maybe that was me subconsciously fooling the test.
Comment by Don — December 15, 2006 @ 6:03 am
Don’t feel alone, Daryl. I too, was moderately prejudiced in both the race and religion tests although in the religion I was skewed TOWARD Judiaism over other religions, including Christianity. Interesting! (However, I had trouble remembering the symbols and got a lot wrong on that one.)
Comment by Donna — December 15, 2006 @ 7:09 am
Is it possible this test is like the “million monkeys in a room full of typewriters”? 😉
Comment by Don — December 19, 2006 @ 7:34 am