Department of FWIW

[akirlu]

I think the fact that I keep James Nicoll on my LJ reading list is irrefutable proof that our hunter-gatherer brains are wired to favor long odds as long as the opportunity costs are low and the potential (very rare) payoff is a bit interesting. Today James was yet again playing his gleeful little game of encouraging dogpiles and flame wars by sending the faithful off to trounce whatever heretic abjures the KoolAid this time. But, unlike so many times, I got something interesting and positive out of following James' link. Prompted by one of the comments at the linked site, I went ahead and finally took the race-related implicit association test over at the Harvard Project Implicit website. Basically, the test seeks to ferret out "implicit" or unconscious positive or negative associations you have based on (in this case) race, by testing whether you are quicker to associate members of one group over another with positive words and feelings.

According to the test, I'm in the 17% of test takers who have little or no automatic preference between black people, and white. More descriptively, I am apparently no quicker to associate white faces with positive words than I am to associate black faces with them. What that ultimately says about my "real" levels of bias or preference is anyone's guess, but I was pleased that for this one little index, my self assessment matches the 'objective' test.

If you're curious to take one of the tests yourself, you can find them here:

Implicit Association Demo

Comments

[kaffy-r.livejournal.com]

OK, I just took it, and it was a truly interesting result. It states that I'm among the 6 percent of people who show a slight automatic preference for black people. What makes it interesting is that, on the question section of the test, I answered extremely conservatively in an effort not to list myself as totally neutral, which I didn't think was 100 percent accurate. Since my social circle doesn't include a lot of non-white people, I put down that I was slightly more comfortable with white people. (Answering the way I did chagrined me, but I did it anyhow. It isn't true, but it is less not-true than saying that I'm color blind.)

[greyorm.livejournal.com]

I took those quite some time ago when Will pointed to them. I don't recall what my answer was clearly, but if I am recalling correctly it was "prefers non-whites". Which was surprising to me as I'm in a very "white" rural area (ie: redneck country). Or, well, maybe that's exactly why.

[greyorm.livejournal.com]

Also, damn. Out of curiosity I went and read Nicolls' journal, and from there the thing that was the issue. Then ended up calling out Mamatas for trying to use an old and hoary rhetorical trick to "prove" what a jerk Hoyt was, really, for saying such mean things about people who were being mean.

[seawasp]

My experience is similar to Kaffyr's. I noted that I probably preferred whites slightly to blacks, simply because I've become sensitized over the years. But the test said I was in the 6% with a slight automatic positive response to black over white.

[maryread.livejournal.com]

Well that was very interesting. I didn't take the white-black one yet. (Why is my experience never well represented in multiple choice and true-false tests? Other, I want more Others.) But I took the one about whether Native Americans are perceived as more or less American than White Americans.

I "slightly" associate White Americans with being more Foreign than Native Americans. This seems kind of common sense to me. But the majority associate Native Americans with Foreign. And mine I can say is a prejudice I have achieved by years of self-education on the subject, by my bootstraps. I think I'm hellaciously proud of this, but not entirely sure I should be.

And on yet another hand, a lot of them are still sovereign Nations.
Is American an idea, or a piece of real estate?
Both, I will have both.

[maryread.livejournal.com]

Okay, I went back for the African American-European American test, just to stay on topic. Sez here a "moderate automatic preference for African Americans" which is with only 6% of people tested. Just weird, since I don't hang with all that many black people. I see them mostly on television! Although I will admit to thinking about our next-door neighbors for many years who were an interracial family. Screwy tests. I admitted to identifying as White. But I'm left a little blank on whether or not I am Not Entirely Hispanic (blame my Cuban family).

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I followed a link to the IAT site about a year ago, or maybe it was longer than that. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't show any preference one way or the other on the race IAT. I took a few others. IIRC, I came up pretty near even on those, all except for the religion IAT, where I have a noticeable automatic preference for Jews. I still don't know what I think about that.

[quirky-teal.livejournal.com]

Interesting site. Thanks for the referral. I shared your result - which surprised me, since my right hand got the shakes while I was taking the test. I guess they were equal opportunity shakes. :-)