I understand. I seriously must have been on crack when I first read this thread. The arguments are way more intelligent, upon second reading, than I initially judged them to be–and I totally missed that other thing you said. I think I was just responding not to you, but the ones who call “bullshit” or “silly” without looking at the hard science.
Carry on… 
Well, that’s okay. I used “bullshit” in my first sentence to draw the reader in, as was taught to me in high-school composition class (though “bullshit” itself was frowned upon).
Mine came out with a strong preference for European Americans. Perhaps there is a correlation between starting threads on the subject of race and racial bias 
I am probably not qualified to judge the scientific merits of the test. It does seem pretty silly, though.
I scored as having a strong preference for Europeans over blacks.
I blame all the white dolls I was given as a child.
I think this has rather more to do with the results of the test than any quibbles over (or outright rejection of) the methodology. The particular bunches (note plural) of psychologists who have been conducting these tests for well over a decade have pretty thoroughly established that there is some sort of relationship between cognition and the responses. Barring some actual peer reviewed criticism of the tests or similar tests that successfully falsify the experiment, I think it is pointless to grumble that the test has failed to demonstrate anything.
On the other hand, just what has been demonstrated seems to be still up for grabs. Does it demonstrate that large numbers of persons are actually racist? Does it demonstrate that society is actually racist? Or does it simply demonstrate that a society with a very long tradition of racism that has permeated all media of advertising, entertainment, news, and most media of education up through the 1960s, and has only been stepping back from that racism in fits and starts in the last forty years, has created an unconscious mental model to which a majority of people react at the subconscious level before their cognitive processes kick in?
Before I would want to make any grand claims based on the tests, I would be curious to see the same tests carried out on a wide variety of societies. For that matter, it would be curious to see how thoses tests are demographically organized even in this society. What are the test results when the subjects are more likely to be some specific pairing of European/white, African/black, Southeast Asian, Central American, North American Indian? What happens when the pairing is used on specific testees? How do the repondents break down for those tests if they are taken from locations where large numbers of different ethnic groups live in adjacent enclaves or all mixed together?
It would also be useful to see the results of direct follow-up interviews with persons tested, particularly when the test results go “against type.” For example, Monstro’s facetious remark and my WAG about its source indicate a general white over black preference that may have a societal (not personal) basis. On the other hand, what do we know about the black person who selects black over white or, perhaps more interestingly, the white person who selects black over white? Discovering the prompts from people who go counter to the societal norm might give us a better insight into what the test is actually demonstrating.
I wasn’t being completely facetious, tom. I’ve said it before, in a previous thread: I don’t think it is possible for a black American to be totally free from self-hatred, living in the society we do. Black people have been inculcated with the same images and messages–both expressed and latent–that our white counterparts have. In fact, I think because black people are bombarded with the contrasts between whites and blacks more than whites are, they take on even more negative thinking.
I’m pretty sure that if, as a child, someone had presented me with a black doll and a white doll and asked me to pick the prettier one, I would have gone after the white one. As far as I know, no one ever sat me down and told me white dolls are inherently prettier, but yet I know at one time in my life I believed this. I’m certain that adulthood has swept the idea out of my conscious mind, but I’m also sure the residue of this and other beliefs are still in my head, waiting to be exposed by quizzes on the internet.
Unlike most posters here, I think the test is valid. The experiment controls for handedness and primacy effect (whereby the order of questions affects the outcome), and you see this if you take the test multiple times.
In the book Blink, which olivesmarch4th mentioned above, Gladwell mentions that a student of his took the test daily, always scoring with a preference for whites. One day his score changed and he tried to figure out why. Turns out that morning, the student had watched the Olympics, specifically the track and field events. Gladwell then goes on to say that if test subjects are presented with “positive” images of black people (like pictures of Colin Powell), then their level of anti-black bias drops.
I generally use facetious to mean “amusing in tone” rather than to mean “not really serious.” I thought that your expression was facetious, but that your point was dead on.
My opinion, based on the other research that these tests have spawned, is that it proves that people can engage in prejudiced behavior unconsciously, without being aware they are doing it, regardless of their consciously held racial biases or anitbiases.
To cite a couple examples.
From Blink: studies measured subjects’ scores on basic academic tests (I think they were math tests.) Black students scored significantly poorer than white students when and only when they were asked to identify their ethnicity at the beginning of the exam. This suggests that just the very simple reminder that they were black was enough to undermine performance on the exam.
Another study my husband told me about (he actually knows way more about this stuff than I do) went as follows. People were paired in various black / white combinations and each told to conduct interviews of the other–the interviewee was then scored on performance by a panel of judges. By and large the white people being interviewed and the black people being interviewed by other black people scored substantially better than black people interviewed by white people. Scientists observed that when white people, even those without any overt racial bias, interviewed the black people, they tended to sit much closer to the black subject and interrupt them more often. To continue with the experiment, scientists did it over again, this time requiring all interviewers to sit at that same up-close distance-- the result was that with that extra change in distance, the white interviewees performance dropped just as markedly as the black interviewees had.
And then there are the many observational studies and experiments where it has been shown that even people with no overt racial biases consistently discriminate in unconscious ways – not calling job applicants with “ehtnic” names, or offering as good a deal on everything from car rentals to bank loans.
So I think these tests do have a lot to say – and are corroborated by a ton of other evidence – about unconscious cultural and racial bias in this country. The problem is people think “unconscious racial bias” means the same thing as “racist.” It’s doesn’t. All it really means is that, if you score as having a bias against blacks, you’ve just been given more messages and images that are negative than are positive. It’s a numbers thing. It’s about cultural exposure. For IATs there is little correlation between the person’s most deeply held beliefs about racism and how they score on the test. It doesn’t measure whether you’re a jackass. It measures whether in your lifetime you’ve by and large been exposed to negative images of black people-- and it does affect behavior that is beyond conscious control.
A good example is me. I’m not a racist. Racism offends me. Racism is the scourge of my existence. I hate it. HATE it. But I scored as a moderate bias on one of these tests. Does that prove I’m really a racist? No. It’s explainable by the fact that I grew up in a racist shit hole and see racist images and hear racist opinions all the damn time.
I also took a test on gender bias – how well I correlated science and math with men and English and the arts with women. You know what? I scored with having a bias TOWARDS women being associated with math and science–it’s easier for me to associate women with math and science. The most likely explanation for this is that my mother is an Engineer, my Aunt was a biology major in college, I considered going into biology myself and most of my friends at the time I took the test were female engineers.
So please, whatever you do, understand it’s not intended as a judgment on your moral beliefs or opinions. It’s intended as an analysis of overarching cultural trends and messages and how the unconscious mind uses those messages, regardless of our moral beliefs, to impact our unconscious behavior.
That is all.