Racism Test

These online tests are fascinating- and a little scary.

Many of us (one hopes) aren't conciously racist- that is, we don't think "Group X is bad/inferior/trouble etc.. I hate group X" and so on. This test measures your instinctive, unconcious biases. There's a sexism test too. Remember that this part of your mind is inarticulate and not really rational. This is the same mental machinery that causes your blood to run cold when you see a gory picture even before you take in what you're looking at*

I'm wondering if the unconcious bias causes more problems in modern society than thought-out biases. For every hate group nut job that there's probably hundreds of people who conciously know he's wrong and could present logical arguements to support their feelings- but still harbor a hidden grudge that's hardwired into their brain.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/measureyourattitudes.html

*I'm no neurologist or psycologist or sociologist so take my words with a grain of salt. The link itself does a better job of explaining things.

Interesting. I came across this a few years ago. I got:




I am an enigma

this is a classic test that pretty much any social psychology student will have seen. If you don't respond quick enough.. your results will be inconclusive. Of course, from an HCI and human factors side, its a terrible design in creating repetition and you may or may not click what you intended simply because you had been clicking fast to keep up. Its a neat test to try if you're bored, but I would take its results with the proverbial salt grain.

Can I take the proverbial salt with some real tequila?

The tests are implicitly racist

Apparently I'm biased against myself

I started to do one test, then decided it was not something I agreed with so I stopped.

I think our society encourages people to become less aware of thier own bias by labeling people as racist if they do display any bias. The way the human mind works by categorizing and forming cognitions and affects baised on those categories is something common to everyone, not A-type racists. The ideal is to have everyone like every group of people we can think of, or at least be able to not dislike them. This ideal is very unrealitic IMHO. Most people are forced to view themselves racist, colorblind, or a victimized minority. Which is sad, because people have multiple identities-- minorities also opress other minorities as part of the majority and many people in majority also have some limited membership or association in a minority group. But no one wants to be labeled as racist, which is silly because everyone has feelings and ideas in reguards to other races and minority groups, good and bad. That is part of being human. However, our puritan soceity makes people less able to deal with thier negative feelings towards outgroups. Which is extremely regretable because I think this causes a lot of injustice to fester beneath the surface of our culture because we just don't have the tools to face up to our own feelings and find ways to preach true tolerance and not just political correct-ness.

Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Gay People and Straight People.(gay vs straight)

Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for White American compared to African American. (aa vs wa)

second one kinda surprised me, but not by much considering where i was raised and where i live now.....still wow.....

treat people with respect and respect shall be given

Took the test, no surprises at all.

Thank you for writing this. I 100% agree but have had a hard time explaining in these terms.

I HATE tests that tell you to go as fast as you can! My brain can't cope with it. I tried for 30 seconds and then had to go for a lie down...

Heh... any test that assumes a non-white person is african-american is racist by definition. I know many people with dark skin, some of african descent, some of carribean... none of them are in any way shape nor form american and would be insulted to be described as such.

I was given the Black/Good - White/Bad option first. It took me a while to get used to what I was doing.

I was given the White/Good - Black/Bad option second after I felt more comfortable with the test itself.

Now I'm a racist! I hate myself.

Had some coffee and managed to do some tests without wanting to bash my forehead against the keyboard until the test was over..

Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between White and Black.

Your data suggest little or no association between Male and Female with Science and Liberal Arts.

Your data suggest little or no association between European American and African American with Harmless Objects and Weapons.

Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Young compared to Old.

Look out old people! Here I come!

*trips Zap with her cane*

"Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Light Skin and Dark Skin."

"Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for Gay People compared to Straight People."

Though after taking it I stand by my long held opinion that tests like these are a joke. Judging responses by speed? It makes about as much sense as the idea that standardized tests are really telling us what our kids are learning in school.

I got exactly the same results when I took the test, assuming it's the same one. Contrary to your view, I think this test is probably one of the most reliable you can have. It operates using mental associations on the level of reflex, and if your consciousness tries to override those reflexes then the test will show your manipulation of the result.

It gives a genuine result that can't be 'gamed'.

K, so what if someone is just naturally stupid and slow?

Actually after scanning more of the thread, I think Aster had a good point.



I think we all have automatic biases based on who, how, and where we were raised. It's just become so politically incorrect to acknowledge those biases, we're too busy hiding them to be able to take a rational look at them.

Maybe *shrugs*... eh I should shut up and go back to playing with prims.

Not sure, but I believe the test calculates its results on the basis of your average speed.

The test works out the difference between the conditions. If you are stupid and slow you will hopefully remain that way all through the test and the *difference* in time taken in each condition can be worked out and used to show any 'bias'.

They want to see if you are slower in linking a 'good' word to a black face than a 'bad' word. This should happen if there is an interference in your mind caused by you already linking a black face to 'bad' even if you're unaware of it.

I live on a Scottish Island and don't come across many black people in my day to day life yet I seem to have a preference for black faces. There must be a lot of positive black role models on tv or something.

I guess it's much easier to dismiss it as a joke than actually find out how it works. Stroop tests have been around for decades and are still used in psychology because despite their flaws, they do seem to work.