I came on this link to the Implicit Association Test over at Scalzi's place. It's designed to show if you have unconscious biases for or against a group. (If you take one of the initial tests, designed to show prejudice linking gender to family/career or for or against fat people vs thin people or black people vs white people, you can then click on Measure Your Attitudes and select other tests, including a bunch about politics and religion. So far, it's shown that I have a moderately strong association between women and families and men and careers, no prejudice toward fat vs. thin people, a moderate preference for Judaism vs. other religions, and a moderate preference for black faces vs. white faces. Aside from the preference toward Judaism, and possibly the female/family connection, those results are not what I'd have expected and I wonder if it's really just showing I have a preference for right vs. left. Still, the tests do try to control for that.
(I'm human. I do have prejudices. I just try not to act unjustly because of them.) Anyway, the test is interesting and at least worth thinking about.
I had somewhere I wanted to go with this but can't remember it now. Incidentally, entries here may be a bit sparser than usual for the next little bit; I have training all day tomorrow and a conference part of next week. Meanwhile, my ends are splitting and I haven't had time to schedule a haircut. Cool Salon Guy is now Cool Work-at-Home Guy - he cuts hair out of his house since the salon he worked at closed, and unfortunately his house is a bit further for me. I keep debating whether to keep going to him; not only is it an issue of loyalty but I always enjoy talking to him and he knows how to cut my hair. On the other hand the drive is inconvenient and it just feels odd - not unsafe, just odd - to go to his house. I'll probably do what I've been doing: go to him and put the decision off another month.
Posted by dichroic at January 26, 2005 12:24 PMI've done those tests and found they are seriously skewed. The answers are only half the equation, the speed with which you answer is the other half. Their assumption is if someone hesitates that person has a prejudice but doesn't want to say so. Thanks to my hesitant hands and slow eyeball focus I scored very badly on the tests. Went back another time when things were working more properly and big surprise, I'm not a racist, fat hating, religious bully after all. Though, I was tickled that their very earnest test to discover secret prejudices had a built-in prejudice against the physically handicapped. Ironic, no? ~LA
Posted by: LA at January 26, 2005 01:10 PM