Monday, November 10, 2008
IAT and your level of unconscious prejudice
Very interesting research and study of discovering people's levels of unconscious prejudice.
The IAT, Implicit Associate Test, is an experimental method within social psychology designed to measure the strength of automatic association between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. The IAT requires the rapid categorization of various stimulus objects, such that easier pairings (and faster responses) are interpreted as being more strongly associated in memory than more difficult pairings (slower responses).
The Harvard online demo test is a very interesting personal exploration into thoughts that you might not realize you have. As an example, I did the gay/straight test, since I know a lot of gay people. I didn't think I had a preference to either sexual type, but it turns out that I still have a slightly higher preference towards straight people. That was surprising. I truly didn't think I preferred either (well, expect for maybe actually being straight).
There are also tests about age, weight, race, etc. that I think we should all take in order to understand ourselves better. Self evaluation should be a high priority for all of us, so that we can understand ourselves better in the context of our external life.
The IAT, Implicit Associate Test, is an experimental method within social psychology designed to measure the strength of automatic association between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. The IAT requires the rapid categorization of various stimulus objects, such that easier pairings (and faster responses) are interpreted as being more strongly associated in memory than more difficult pairings (slower responses).
The Harvard online demo test is a very interesting personal exploration into thoughts that you might not realize you have. As an example, I did the gay/straight test, since I know a lot of gay people. I didn't think I had a preference to either sexual type, but it turns out that I still have a slightly higher preference towards straight people. That was surprising. I truly didn't think I preferred either (well, expect for maybe actually being straight).
There are also tests about age, weight, race, etc. that I think we should all take in order to understand ourselves better. Self evaluation should be a high priority for all of us, so that we can understand ourselves better in the context of our external life.
The End of Privacy - Whitaker