Privacy of the Mind

Interesting new article in Newsweek on the subject of “Secret Prejudices.” The idea being that while our rational minds might allow us to overcome biases, subconsciously we may still be prejudiced towards groups of people and this can affect our behavior in ways we may not realize. The article goes on to discuss a type of psychological test called Implicit Association Tests or IATs. It’s a testing technique that tries to bypass our conscious minds and tap into our subconscious. Harvard University hosts IAT tests on their website and allows the general public to try them. I took a few this evening just to see what I thought, and the results were interesting…

First, should you decide to try this give yourself time. These tests are a little involved (though the basic concept is simple) and I found them fatiguing due to the mental concentration required. You’ll have to click through a few disclaimers and they do ask for demographic information but apart from that, the demonstration IATs are anonymous. Keep in mind that these are scientific tests, not the casual types of multiple choice tests you find on Facebook or Myspace.

I took four of the IATs (so far), starting with one on the 2008 Presidential Candidates. This is the longest of the IATs I tried. My results weren’t a surprise to me, in fact the summary information at the end said that a persons self assessment of their political leanings and the subconscious biases are normally pretty close. My results showed I had a strong bias for Obama (true) with close to neutral feelings for Clinton and McCain (slightly stronger for Clinton but not by much) and I was quite cold towards Huckabee.

Next I tried the Race IAT which measures biases toward white and black races. Personally, I don’t consider myself to be racist but the test showed a strong automatic preference for European Americans versus African Americans. I shouldn’t have been surprised I suppose, as growing up in the South race was a big deal. Culturally I was indoctrinated with racial stereotypes. I’d like to think that my rational, thinking self overcomes those biases but maybe I’m fooling myself.

Next I tried the Sexuality IAT which measures biases between straight and gay preferences. I consider myself pretty open minded about sexual orientation and this time, the test backed that up. My results showed a slight automatic preference for gay people compared to straight people. This might surprise you as the same southern upbringing was strongly biased against homosexuality but apparently, I’ve been able to overcome it.

Finally, I tried the Weapons IAT just because I was curious what it actually measured. The results demonstrate your bias towards weapons and race. Do you associate weapons more with blacks or whites? I suspect my background skews this result as I showed a slight automatic preference for associating whites with weapons. As an active member of the gun culture, I know people of all races involved in gun ownership and I imagine that influences my subconscious on the subject.

In any case, I found the tests interesting enough that I might sign up to participate in their research project and try a few more. If you try any of the demonstration IATs, I’d be curious to see your results if you feel comfortable sharing them.

The URL again, is https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

The author of the Newsweek article also maintains a blog called We’re Only Human that you might find interesting.