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Underground > Laboratory >

Implicit association test

at the scarwash

22:07 / 22.05.03

This is an interesting online association test being performed in conjunction with a Harvard study on implicit predjudice and preference. It made my head feel kind of funny. I haven't decided what I think about it yet, but I thought that it could stimulate interesting discussion.

22:45 / 22.05.03

I tried one session and came up with a study with respect to USA and Japan. On analysis I was told that I have a moderate preference for USA over Japan. While this might be the case, I wonder to what extent factors such as spatial location, relative familiarity, and degree of exposure to one or the other is taken into consideration when evaluating the responses of any particular individual?

Also, when the test shifts its polarities, I wonder to what extent this reveals so-called “implicit” preferences, or to what extent the conditioned pattern of the previous barrage of sorting plays a role—I’d probably say that one blurs into the other.

What I find most interesting about the specific study that I did was that, as far as I am consciously aware, I have little preference for USA over Japan, but am merely more closely connected to and aware of USA as opposed to Japan; that is, I likely have more things to say about USA as opposed to Japan because I am more familiar with USA than Japan. Does this translate into the truth of the statement ‘I have a moderate preference for USA over Japan”?—I find that somewhat misleading.

at the scarwash

00:06 / 23.05.03

Right, there's that, as well as the fact that I'm right handed, and I think that most of my mistakes were caused by the tendancy of my right hand to twitch a little bit more readily. I'm sure that the estimable mandarins at Harvard have included all of these factors in their study. After the fact (my task was a compariso of Creationism vs Evolution), I was interested in the way my mind rebelled slightly to the assignations of value judgements one way or another. I made a few wrong responses due to my confusion at equating science with good, for instance. Or god with bad. I don't know how valid these tests are for their intended purpose, but I think they are interesting to take.

14:14 / 23.05.03

mine was mcdonalds vs. burger king. weird. it said that i have no preference, when i *know* that i like burger king more, both the food and just politically (as it's less monolithic and culture-invading).

18:43 / 27.03.04

I found this test totally compelling - really really invigorating and weird. I spent the entire test convinced that it was going to reveal that I hated the States - my interpretation of how I was doing seemed to back that up - but when the results came through the suggestion was that I felt more strongly positively about the USA by quite a long way. This is totally unexpected given that I'm English but also somehow not that unexpected given that I've been thinking about how I might emigrate for quite a while now... Fascinating.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

23:47 / 28.03.04

I did the gender/Liberal Arts /Sciences one. I was mildly surprised that I came up as slightly associating "Female" with "Science" and "Male" with the liberal arts, because on a conscious level I don't associate gender with ability or interest. However, it was only a slight correlation.

I suppose it would be explained by my associating both "female" and "science" with "Hey! That's me!", and the liberal arts with "Guys" and more specifially "Those guys over there."

I mean, think about it: a lot of the liberal arts choices are ones you'd associate with blokes. Philosophy? Socrates and all them. Latin? Those Latin-speaking guys like Caeser. History? Kings, generals, soldiers, and (for my demographic) Tony Robinson. Blokes to a man.

The result bugged me a tiny tiny bit, because I detest the whole idea that one set of subjects wears pink and another blue, but I guess we all have our prejudices tucked away somewhere. Anything that scares those prejudices out where we can stomp them like cockroaches is A Good Thing.

19:31 / 29.03.04

I took some of these tests a while ago (several months ago I believe). I took the race test because I was curious... the result was that I didn't show a preference for either white or black faces. However, when I was taking the test I was conscious of the implications of my answers, and it was virtually impossible to not let myself try to skew my results away from any possible prejudice (white liberal American paranoia, yes I know). I don't know how well any thoughtful person could get accurate results - it's so hard to be truly automatic in your responses.

07:04 / 30.03.04

the UK/US felt weirdly kind of clockwork orange... but yeah I completed the test and it promptly broke before telling me my result -

17:26 / 05.04.04

According to this test, I hate old people. And to think, all this time I've been pushing over senior citizens without proper psychological justification for my actions!