# Implicit association tests. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 7, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731 "2006-06-07T13:42:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/1 "2006-06-07T13:42:37Z")
These [implicit association tests](https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.jsp) may be old news, but they’re still fun. It turns out that I have a moderate implicit aversion towards Arab Muslims. I guess I need to work on that. However, I prefer Jews to people of other religions, and gays over straight people. I have no particular preference between light or dark skin. Also, I absolutely love John F. Kennedy, and I think George W. Bush is the devil incarnate. Perhaps most surprisingly, I actually associate females with careers and males with family, even if the difference is only slight. So, all in all I guess I didn’t do too badly. I’ll have to admit to somewhat disliking old, overweight and disabled people, but that’s really no surprise to me, to be honest. Does that make me a bad person? Well, so be it. I think they should do a cats vs. humans test. Then again, I’m pretty sure I can predict how I’ll score on that one. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/2 "2006-06-07T13:54:22Z")
Hey, **Peak Banana** –your link doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/3 "2006-06-07T13:59:41Z")
Their server seems to be down. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/4 "2006-06-07T14:00:28Z")
:smack: Yeah, it looks like the server chose this exact moment to go down. Just my luck. Try it again in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/5 "2006-06-07T14:50:03Z")
The link worked for me, and told me (or implied at least…) that I am a severe homophobe. Those faggots at Harvard don’t know a thing… ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/6 "2006-06-07T15:09:50Z")
I have little or no preference toward gay or straight people. That’s handy, since I never know. Tris ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/7 "2006-06-07T15:14:49Z")
Apparently, I moderately prefer George Bush to Richard Nixon, straight people to gays, light skin to dark skin, thin to fat and young to old. I think what has actually happened is that I made associations in the first halves of the test and spent the second halves trying to break them. I made a lot of mistakes in the second halves. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/8 "2006-06-07T15:15:30Z")
This is a really stupid test. It scored me contrary to my stated answers because my hand-eye coordination ain’t so hot? Fuck 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/9 "2006-06-07T15:23:58Z")
It’s interesting that so many are latching on to the gay-straight test. I opted for the weapons-ethnicity test, where I found I have no implicit associations between weapons and race. That’s probably because I know gun-crazy folks who are white as well as black. But since everyone else was, too, I took the staight-gay test and found that I have a strong positive assocation with gay. I also seem to prefer lighter skin to darker skin, though that’s less pronounced. This surprised me a bit because on attractiveness scales I tend to prefer bi- and multi-racial folks like Lenny Kravitz or Fefe Dobson. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/10 "2006-06-07T15:30:26Z")
> [@FlyingRamenMonster](#): > > I think what has actually happened is that I made associations in the first halves of the test and spent the second halves trying to break them. I made a lot of mistakes in the second halves. You don’t think it’s significant that you readily made the associations in the first part and had troubles in the second? When the two aspects you like are assocatied with the same hand, you make fewer mistakes and answer more quickly, regardless of whether the pairs are in the early or later part of the test. > [@Kalhoun](#): > > This is a really stupid test. It scored me contrary to my stated answers because my hand-eye coordination ain’t so hot? Fuck 'em. Maybe your ideals and your reality aren’t as closely aligned as you would like them to be. Or maybe you just really have poor skills as you suggest. Did you take more than one test? Did you agree with some of them or have trouble with all of them? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/11 "2006-06-07T15:35:48Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > You don’t think it’s significant that you readily made the associations in the first part and had troubles in the second? When the two aspects you like are assocatied with the same hand, you make fewer mistakes and answer more quickly, regardless of whether the pairs are in the early or later part of the test. > Maybe your ideals and your reality aren’t as closely aligned as you would like them to be. Or maybe you just really have poor skills as you suggest. Did you take more than one test? Did you agree with some of them or have trouble with all of them? I only took the Jews vs. Other Religions test. I just don’t see how hand-eye coordination correlates to my feelings about religion. I understand that they’re shooting for a subliminal something-or-other, but I don’t see the usefulness of it when you don’t have equal footing on the process by which to measure it. There’s no way everyone will start with the same degree of hand-eye adeptness, nor will my adeptness necessarily be the same from hour to hour, day to day. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/12 "2006-06-07T15:41:00Z")
Also, I believe I made one mistake on each side. I just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/13 "2006-06-07T16:15:06Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > I don’t see the usefulness of it when you don’t have equal footing on the process by which to measure it. That’s why there are four portions of the test. The first two, where you sort religious symbols into “Jewish” and “Other” and where you sort the words into “Good” and “Bad”, determine your baseline, so it can take into account your reading speed and hand-eye coordination. And then there’s the one where “Good” things go into the same column as “Jewish” and “Bad” goes into the same column as “Other”, and another test where “Bad” goes with “Jewish” and “Good” goes with “Other.” If you’re slower on one of the tests and faster on the other, then, subconsiously associate “Jews” with either “Good” or “Bad.” It’s not just your coordination that determines the test result; it’s how your coordination varies from one test to another. And it’s not just how many mistakes you make, it’s how fast you are, too. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/14 "2006-06-07T16:20:59Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > That’s why there are four portions of the test. The first two, where you sort religious symbols into “Jewish” and “Other” and where you sort the words into “Good” and “Bad”, determine your baseline, so it can take into account your reading speed and hand-eye coordination. > > And then there’s the one where “Good” things go into the same column as “Jewish” and “Bad” goes into the same column as “Other”, and another test where “Bad” goes with “Jewish” and “Good” goes with “Other.” If you’re slower on one of the tests and faster on the other, then, subconsiously associate “Jews” with either “Good” or “Bad.” > > It’s not just your coordination that determines the test result; it’s how your coordination varies from one test to another. And it’s not just how many mistakes you make, it’s how fast you are, too. Okay, I understand the logic, but you have to remember the switch and that automatically slows you down (at least it slowed ME down). I just don’t see how it measures a person’s thoughts…only their physical/mental agility. I’ll be interested in seeing how others fare. There have only been a few takers thus far. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/15 "2006-06-07T16:27:19Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > You don’t think it’s significant that you readily made the associations in the first part and had troubles in the second? When the two aspects you like are assocatied with the same hand, you make fewer mistakes and answer more quickly, regardless of whether the pairs are in the early or later part of the test. I took five, at random. All of them said I showed a moderate preference for whatever came first. I think that’s significant. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/16 "2006-06-07T16:50:16Z")
I have no preference to Arab-muslims versus other people, and a slight preference for Judaism over other religions, which seems odd, but about right for me. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/17 "2006-06-07T18:02:30Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Okay, I understand the logic, but you have to remember the switch and that automatically slows you down (at least it slowed ME down). I just don’t see how it measures a person’s thoughts…only their physical/mental agility. I’ll be interested in seeing how others fare. There have only been a few takers thus far. It measures them based on how long it takes your brain to associate the item to a group. From there for the message to travel to your hands is, over the long term average out independantly of which header is on which side. So the only thing that remains to be measured is the time to associate things to groupings. If it takes your brain longer to put careers on the same side as the women but not on the side with the guys, then…well it takes your brain longer to make that connection obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/18 "2006-06-07T20:52:13Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Okay, I understand the logic, but you have to remember the switch and that automatically slows you down (at least it slowed ME down). I just don’t see how it measures a person’s thoughts…only their physical/mental agility. I’ll be interested in seeing how others fare. There have only been a few takers thus far. I found that it’s extremely hard for me to apply any of the arbitrary categories well - I’m fine with “white versus black” and “good versus bad”, but “white or bad versus black or good” and vice versa just confused the hell out of me. The idea behind the test makes sense, certainly, but I wonder how much my scores were just noise from me getting all confused and shit. Anyway, the test says I like gay and straight people the same, but I hate blacks and think women should stay in the home (but only moderately on both counts.) Interesting, anyway. I’m withholding judgment on whether I think it actually reflected anything in my subconscious. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/19 "2006-06-07T21:35:14Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > I found that it’s extremely hard for me to apply any of the arbitrary categories well - I’m fine with “white versus black” and “good versus bad”, but “white or bad versus black or good” and vice versa just confused the hell out of me. The idea behind the test makes sense, certainly, but I wonder how much my scores were just noise from me getting all confused and shit. > > Anyway, the test says I like gay and straight people the same, but I hate blacks and think women should stay in the home (but only moderately on both counts.) > > Interesting, anyway. I’m withholding judgment on whether I think it actually reflected anything in my subconscious. That’s how I felt! I didn’t feel “good” or “bad” regarding either category, so the whole thing kind of made me crazy. It was like, I don’t associate those words with those ideas. I was just stammering around the whole thing trying to keep it straight. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731/20 "2006-06-08T03:09:43Z")
I ended up with no preference for arab-muslim–\>other and gender–\>science, and slight pref for thin–\>fat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implicit-association-tests/359731.md?page=2)