Are you racist? The test that claims to know

[Cleita]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4447471.stm

Are you racist? The test that claims to know
By Lucy Wilkins
BBC News

Can a five-minute online test help tell whether you are racist or not? In the US, two million people have taken one and now a UK version is available. Racism is a reality encountered every day in Britain, but how many people actually consider themselves racist?

It's difficult to be sure because people's true feelings are inevitably concealed by their politeness. So much so that those who harbour prejudice sometimes cannot admit it even to themselves.

But a five-minute online test (see Internet links, right), devised by American academics and newly launched in Britain, promises to strip away the veneer of respectability many people hold on to, and plunder the prejudices we harbour in the unconscious. The result - a truer picture of one's attitudes. More...

And heres a link to the Harvard developed Project Implicit demonstration test if you want to take it.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

[951-Riverside]

1. I can be anything IF I choose to be n/t

[Budmeiser]

2. 10 bucks Michael Richards won't take it

:rofl:

[Cleita]

3. If anybody should take it, it's him before he does an apology.

eom

[TheBaldyMan]

4. I took it a couple of years back but it said I wasn't racist, so I don't really agree

with it's results.

It made me go cross eyed as well!

[Horse with no Name]

5. Thanks for the links

On the Harvard test
Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey.

[Cleita]

6. Well, the test was devised at Harvard.

I read about it a couple of months ago. It's about the most scholarly one I could find on the internet, but that doesn't mean it's 100% right.

[survivor999]

43. Wrong. The faculty who came up with it did so at Yale.

THEN she moved to Harvard.

[Cleita]

49. Thanks for the correction.

I didn't know and didn't see any mention of Yale at the website, but I didn't go through all of it.

[survivor999]

54. Not sure it's on the site...

I just know her work well.

[slackmaster]

7. OK, I'll cop to "strong automatic preference for European American compared to African American"

However, I disagree that such a result constitutes evidence of racism as I understand the term. Is it evidence of prejudice? Certainly.

I studied implicit psychology as an undergraduate BTW. It's nice to see that the field has advanced to this level. The whole Harvard site is very interesting.

[MADem]

8. I think everyone has potential to be some sort of "ist"

Hatred can be planted by parents, teachers, society, peers, for no reason, and sometimes, for good reason--if someone is trying to wipe out your family, you're not feeling much in the way of love for them. If you get beaten out for that great job by someone of the "Fill in the Blank" race, not once, but three times, you may start getting those creeping feelings of resentment and anger.

You'd have to wonder what we'd have to carp about if we really did become a worldwide melting pot. If we all had a little bit of everything in us, that racism shit would go out the window. I guess we'd just have to start griping at people over their religions (oops, we already do that) or what region we choose to live in (uh, oh...northern elitists, southern rednecks, the new midwestern Yuppie...we do that too!).

I suspect it is in our nature to do this kind of thing. It's one of those things we have to rage against, I guess. Pity, because it's mean, nasty and counterproductive....

[Cleita]

11. My problem with bigotry isn't that I do recognize we all have

it no matter where we fall, however, it's what has cost some of the greatest suffering in history up until this date. It's what brought us President Bush and the Iraqi war to oblivion.

If we are going to survive as a species, we have to first identify it in ourselves, and then we have to work on overcoming it.

You, know that there would have been no President Bush if the GOP hadn't pandered to voters prejudices to get him into office. Even though he didn't really win either election, the fact that the votes were so close enabled his cabal to tip the scales in his favor.

[MADem]

31. Yep, you nailed that concept. Rove appealed to the worst in people, not the best.

I'm surprised he didn't take out a patent on his style of fomenting hate.

[Debi]

9. Me and 17% of the people who took the test

"Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between European American and African American."

Now.....on to Oprah and Martha......:P

[MrPrax]

10. As an online quiz, I rate it...

"somewhat interesting"...

I did the first one and ended up with a slight automatic preference for black people?

It could be some difference over a couple of the words rather than images :shrug:

[slackmaster]

35. I have a couple of problems with the images the researchers used

The pictures of black people didn't do justice to the wide range of skin tones and facial features that black people have. They seemed to be ones that emphasize one type of black face, while the European ones covered a little more of a range.

Also, the pictures were all of adult males, which does not represent the real population.

[ComerPerro]

12. I think the test is bullshit

associates white with bad first, and then dark with bad second.

And they measure your response time to equating good and bad with white and dark.

However, they don't factor in a learing curve for the workings of the test.

Naturally, the exercise you perform last will be your fastest, because you will become more acclimated to the bizzare sorting.

[Cleita]

13. Don't blame the messenger.

Let them know what you think.

[Catherine Vincent]

16. When I took it, it associated blacks with bad first.

??

[ComerPerro]

18. doesn't matter which order.

[Minnesota_Lib]

29. What they are looking for, IMO, is not the answer for the current pix but...

answer on the next ones. That is why they ask you to go as fast as possible. They are looking for reflexed response. You get used to hitting one key for good and another for bad on the word associations, so then they throw in pictures of blacks and whites looking for you to subconsciously hit the keys associated with "good" or "bad" instead of European American or African-American. The first sets are to judge your reflexes and then the last ones (with black grouped good and white with bad) are the money tests.

So, white face you hit 'i' for white, then black face you hit 'e' for black, then the word "anger" and you reflexively (remember, they want you to go fast for a reason, and this is it) hit 'e' again instead of the correct answer 'i' for bad. Done over and over it forms a pattern of associating negatives with blacks and positives with whites or visa versa.


Does that make sense? I'm not good at explaining some things (and I may be totally wrong as well LOL)

[Cleita]

32. I think that's exactly what they are doing.

There was an article some months ago in a science mag about their methodology. Sorry I can't remember now if it was Scientifc American or Discover.

[BurtWorm]

59. I think your interpretation is right.

It was an interesting test. But because of the Michael Richards thing being so fresh, I found it unnerving. I wound up revealing a slight preference for African-Americans.

[slackmaster]

36. That could cause a primacy effect

Hopefully they randomize the order of presentation to compensate for it.

[crispini]

20. I would imagine they have compensated for that mathematically.

I'm sure they're smart enough to figure that out. ;)

[ComerPerro]

21. somehow i doubt it

[crispini]

24. LOL. Whatever.

Compensating for statistical bias over the course of a test is actually way easy to do. That's pretty basic science.

[ComerPerro]

26. Not if you have a point to prove

[crispini]

38. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Sometimes people actually do scientific research without having a point to prove.

[ComerPerro]

45. not research like this

[crispini]

47. Do you have anything of substance to contribute to this conversation?

I'd be more willing to listen to you if you had, oh say, evidence of Harvard's secret agenda to show that we're all racists, instead of simply snappy one-liners.

[ComerPerro]

51. considering im not privy to their methodology

however, I read their materials and saw no evidence of compensating for the potential for error I discussed.

And, yes, if I wanted to design a study to prove people are racist, you can bet your ass I would skew the hell out of it

[crispini]

53. Well, you didn't look very far, then

On the FAQ page:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/background/faqs.html

Could the result be a function of the order in which I did the two parts? I had to group one category together with pleasant words first. I then found it difficult when I later had to group the other category with pleasant words.

Answer: The order in which tests are administered does make a difference in some tests to the overall result. However, the difference is small and recent changes to the test have sharply reduced the influence of order. Because of this order effect, the orders used for IATs presented on this website are assigned at random. For any data we present, we are careful to be sure that half the test-takers got the A then B order and the other half got the B then A order. With the revised task design, the order has only a minimal influence on task performance. If you want to check whether the order made a difference for you, you can take the test again and complete it if you get assigned to the reverse order. If you do take the test twice in different orders and get different outcomes, the best estimate of your result is intermediate between the two. For more information about the order effect, see this paper (Nosek, Greenwald, & Banaji, in press).

And you still haven't addressed WHY they would want to prove that people are racist.

[ComerPerro]

57. fact remains, it gives you feedback on your individual test. I took the test several times

and got a very wide variety of results.

Doesn't sound very accurate or scientific to me

[survivor999]

42. That's why it is called a DEMO. A DEMO. A DEMO.

There are hundreds of peer-reviewed papers using this test. Counterbalancing the order of presentation is a Psych 101 topic. The results are not due to order effects.

[Catherine Vincent]

14. I took the test.

It said I had a slight preference for African American. I guess if they would have had the test swtiched I would have had a slight preference for European Americans. :shrug:

[anarch]

15. huh

"Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for African American compared to European American."

I did not know that about myself. I'm mostly Irish, but I guess if I think about it I do associate European Americans with a whole lot of horrible history....

[Minnesota_Lib]

17. Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between African American and European American

Interesting, but as much as I'd like to think this is a correct reflection of me, I think that a lot depends on what time of day you take this test. For example, late at night, early in the morning just after awakening or just after a meal, you could be tired or groggy and your attention not as focused as other times so your reflex responses may differ dramatically.


But an interesting method (reflex responses) for testing nonetheless.

[stepnw1f]

25. I Got the Same (nt)

[crispini]

19. Very interesting tests!

I came out with a slight preference for dark skin, and a slight preference AGAINST George W. Bush .... I'm surprised it was that slight... but the pictures of Reagan and Nixon were throwing me off, lol. Might have to try some of the others some time. (Edited to add -- just realized I took the skin-tone test instead of the White / Black test... I'll have to take the other one now...)

[Alexander]

22. I'm with 17% of respondents...

"Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between African American and European American."

70% of all respondents prefer white people over black people? :wtf:

This helps my theory that the Internet is disproportionately used by wealthy white people.

[EdwardM]

23. I'm a racist.

"Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for European American compared to African American."


I better check into rehab now. Because the all knowing computer knows all.

[stepnw1f]

27. Racists Need Rehab?

Maybe some work on denial would be more constructive instead.

[EdwardM]

28. Do I need to spell it out for you?

Who was that funny anti-Jewish man who used rehab as an excuse a few months ago?

[stepnw1f]

30. What is anit-Jewish?

lol...

BTW - He needed rehab because he was in denial about the denial. No joke there...

[jaysunb]

37. Me Too !!

except, I'm Black. Go figure. :evilgrin:

[Greyhound]

33. Only 17% of us score no marked preference one way or the other

Why am I not surprised?

[Cleita]

34. There is a problem no doubt.

Maybe if all nations of the world worked on educating their people about bigotry of all kinds, maybe we would have a real peace in the world once and for all.

[Warpy]

39. Funny, after spending a lot of my formative years in the south

and then moving to a heavily segregated city in the northeast, I'd always supposed I was racist to some degree.

The test gave me a strong "no preference for either race."

[VelmaD]

40. Apparently I don't like white people...

I'm in the 4% of the population that shows a moderate automatic preference for African American compared to European American. Who knew?

Maybe it's the Michael Moore rant effect...almost every person who has ever done anything bad to me has been white.

Or maybe I've just got really good hand-eye coordination and didn't do the thing where you subconsciously hit the "wrong" button.

I dunno. But I would be fascinated to sit with the people who designed the test to discuss the methodology and scoring and the psychology behind it all.

[Crankie Avalon]

41. Yippee! I'm one of the 17% with little to no automatic preference...

...not sure how foolproof this test really is, but it's still nicer to have one result than some of the others

You have completed the African American - European American IAT.

Your Result
Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between European American and African American.
Thank you for your participation. Just below is a breakdown of the scores generated by others. Most respondents find it easier to associate African American with Bad and European American with Good compared to the reverse.



Many of the questions that you answered on the previous page have been address in research over the last 10 years. For example, the order that you performed the response pairing is influential, but procedural corrections largely eliminate that influence (see FAQ #1). Each visitor to the site completes the task in a randomized order. If you would like to learn more about the IAT, please visit the FAQs and background information section.

You are welcome to try additional demonstration tasks, and we encourage you to register (easy) for the research site where you will gain access to studies about more than 100 topics about social groups, personality, pop culture, and more.

FAQs || Research site || Demo site || Project Implicit Home

[laundry_queen]

44. hmmm. interesting result for me.

I'm racist - towards white people. (item: I am white, grew up in the rich white burbs) :rofl:
Strange.

[Dover]

46. It's just as easy to call someone a 'racist' as it is to use the "n" word.

Both cowardly copouts.

Labels are tools to avoid understanding, not to clarify. Being human is messy work.

[survivor999]

55. Also, by slapping a label on others...

We feel better about ourselves. Because THEY are the baddies, NOT US. Pathetic, but human. People need to be aware of it though.

[fleabert]

48. Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for African American compared to European American.

some would call this white guilt.

I did have strong feelings of not wanting to discover I had preference to whites.

According to the breakdown, I fit in with 2% of the participants.

[crispini]

50. "slight automatic preference"

for white people over black people... Interesting.... I found the test kind of frustrating, I had to keep thinking about it a lot. Clearly, something interesting is going on in our heads when we do this, at least I felt like it.

[sniffa]

52. i'm not racist

i just hate white peopLe.

[Debi]

60. Funny, sniffa, I thought you just hated people n/t

[sniffa]

61. you know me weLL

but white peopLe are the worst. :hi:

[KingFlorez]

56. I've taken that test before

I think that all of us are racist to some extent, not matter how tolerant and open minded we are.

[Cleita]

58. Even the developer of the test admits to cultural conditioning

about gender prejudices.