The experiment struck me as something like playing a brainwashing arcade game. I wonder how much of my bad responses were due to bad reflexes, and how much were subconcious.
Also, it’s a false dichotomy - whites & African Americans. I admit to a large amount of cynicism towards the experiment; I grew up surrounded by native Pacific Islanders - certainly “black” by 19th century standards, but certainly not “African” and not necessarily “American”. I can’t help but feel that this (ahem) colored my responses a bit. (I also think I saw an Asian face in there too…was that a control item?)
For what it’s worth, I don’t feel that my results were correct. I feel that I am, deep down, moderately racist and conciously aware (and ashamed) of it. Could any kind of implicit association test possibly check for this?
I have to call B.S. too. Like Doctor Who mentioned, it first trains you that white=good. Huh??? I don’t like thinking of things in terms of good and bad anyway, but going along with the terms of the test I was bound to mess up more on the second run after having been trained one way to begin with. I don’t see this test as a good indicator for “preference” of whites/blacks at all.
Honestly the test is right about me. I grew up mostly with white friends and still have mostly white friends. I still have some knee-jerk racist relations, I think the real key is to not let such reactions rule oneself but to overcome them. I find this easier as I get older. I have never had much difficulty with it at any age.
The FAQ on the website says that you get them in random order to minimize that effect, and that if you take the test again you’ll probably get the questions in a different order.
I found it too frustrating to switch keys anyway, I’m not going to bother. What a taxing test.
Well, the point of that test is to make inferrences about the way our visual processing systems work, right? Not to see if you “pass” or “fail” or judge you in any traditional-test way.
I’ve heard from psychologists who study these things that that’s basically how everyone [with a racial conscience] feels–some more than others, but that there’s really nobody who isn’t moderately racist deep down; and that that’s pretty much inevitable due to our subconscious need to process everything we see and file it into categories, and the best we can do is ignore the connections that get made in our neural networks.
Interesting note WRT subconscious visual processing and race. I grew up white (Jewish) in a 90%+ black suburb. Pretty much everyone was on the same socioeconomic rung (middle to upper-middle class), some black families a step or two higher (doctors, lawyers, etc.). I lived there until just before my 11th birthday. When we moved across the country we settled in a neighborhood made up almost entirely of white, Japanese, and Korean people. After living there for about three years I found my old elementary school yearbooks and was shocked at how dark and stereotypically black everyone looked. IRL and in those pictures, all of my black schoolmates looked a lot lighter-skinned when I lived there and the differences in their features, facial structure etc. from one another were more pronounced. After a while the differences between them weren’t as sharp to me and they all looked much, well, less like me. I haven’t noticed any conscious behavioral or cognitive differences WRT black people, except of course what comes with growing older (being more aware of racial tension and feeling more stress in situations with the potential for discrimination).
As a psych. student, this is not an entirely well-designed test. It’s pretty clear how they’re creating the results, and with that added to the fact that you already know what’s being measured makes for some quite big problems. And the sets should be randomly ordered; instead of everyone doing white + good and black + bad first, then the opposites, some people should get black + good and white + bad first.
As I noted earlier, the site’s FAQ says it does randomize. I haven’t done the black/white one and I haven’t repeated any, so I wouldn’t know how random it is.
Anyway, I’m not a psych student (although I’ve taken some classes) but I also thought it was a little iffy that it’s really obvious what they test you for and they tell you the average results of each test before you take it.
But that’s how mine was (black + good and white + bad first).
FWIW, I’m a white female and that test said I had a “slight” preference for whites over blacks.
Also, someone commented that it looks like sometimes the test says “black” and for others it says “african american”. Could this be due to the demographics question at the beginning where you give your nationality? I’m from Canada, and the test used “black”. Perhaps if I’d said I was from the US they would have used “African American” instead.
Is this the test Malcolm Gladwell describes in one of his books (I’m thinking *Blink)? * If so, you might check there for more information abolut test construction.
[race-y test thing]Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for African American compared to European American.[/race-y test thing]
Hmmm. I subscribe to the the Chris Rock theory of “black people” vs. “n****rs” in that I am prejudiced against anyone who seems like an asshole. Friendly looking black guy in a tie? Sure, you’re cool. Angry white kid whose boxers are showing? Fuck 'im. And vice versa.
Still, at work, for example, I make an effort to ensure black customers feel welcome, and I don’t necessarily extend the same courtesy to white folks. On the other hand, I’m more comfortable with, say, a white police officer.
Hell yes. That was my complaint in an earlier thread about this test came up. Someone suggested that I associated “white” with good things more readily, but I think it’s more like playing laser tag and changing teams halfway through, but still wanting to shoot at your new teammates.
Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Black compared to White
50-year-old white guy here.
This seems odd to me as I think I made one mistake during the white/good black/bad phase, and 2 mistakes during the black/good white/bad phase. This doesn’t seem like enough data to extrapolate from. They could be (and probably are) tracking speed of responses as well, so that could factor in, but I still don’t think there’s enough input to justify the conclusion.
As it happens I live in one of the whiter states in the country (Utah), and don’t have any close friends who are black. I don’t actually have many close friends of any color, so that’s not too surprising. Pick four people at random around here and you’re likely to have four white folks. I do have business associates of pretty much all types, but even there most are white, as you’d expect from the population.
But I guess it’s good to know that should it come up, I’ll strongly prefer those black friends.
“Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for African American compared to European American.”
Really? You know, this 23 year old white male has never actually met a black person in real life. It’s very rare that I even see one outside of TV. The last time was easily several weeks ago. I mean, I do wholly believe in racial equality, and logically I know that’s right, but if this test is supposed to detect some sort of innate or cultural bias, I would think I’d be strongly in the other direction. I grew up in a very white world.
“Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Gay People compared to Straight People.”
Well, at least I am gay, but I’m not even sure what this test is supposed to prove. I don’t mind you straight guys, really I don’t. You go have a good time having sex with women and all those other things you do.
I’d do more tests, but I’m sure they’re all just testing how quickly you can re-train your mind to swap buttons.
Perhaps this is because I have not lived for very long in places where there was the possibility of negative black stereotypes. Can’t deny that I am relieved about the results though!
Hmmm. :dubious: I’m pretty sure that all of my slip ups (all of which happened write after they switched up the control scheme I might note) were more associated with the control shift than any association between “Laughter” and “White.”