This week in class we will finish our discussion of 'what it means to be American' and start to explore how identities have been socially constructed. There is a very human and very social process that is involved in the creation of categories of difference and the values that we place on those categories. We are all influenced by our surroundings and are socialized in many different ways. This week we are going to examine the effect of social construction through a unique lens: The Implicit Association Test (IAT). I would like you to take at least one IAT which aims to gauge how we have or have not internalized socially constructed values about race, ethnicity, religion, etc. Ultimately we will connect this to our ongoing discussion of the American identity and what it might mean in an increasingly diverse nation.
The IAT tests have been designed by Project Implicit which, according to the project website, "represents a collaborative research effort between researchers at Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and University of Washington. While the particular purposes of each study vary considerably, most studies available at Project Implicit examine thoughts and feelings that exist either outside of conscious awareness or outside of conscious control. The primary goals of Project Implicit are to provide a safe, secure, and well-designed virtual environment to investigate psychological issues and, at the same time, provide visitors and participants with an experience that is both educational and engaging."
You can find the tests by clicking on "I Wish to Proceed" at the bottom of this screen after reading the disclaimer. On the next screen I would like you to select the Skin Tone IAT which should take no more than 15 minutes to complete. Afterward, if you would like, feel free to take any other IAT tests including a Race (Black-white) IAT, Native (Native-White American) IAT, Asian (Asian-European American IAT), and Arab-Muslim (Arab Muslim - Other) IAT.
I would like you to comment on your experience taking the test and your results. I want to be clear: this is NOT a test suggesting that you are or are not racist. It is designed to indicate internalized preferences regarding issues that are both sensitive and influenced greatly by social, cultural, historical, and institutional influences. Please attempt to draw conclusions about the construction of an "American Identity" from your experience taking these tests. Also please work to build a conversation with your classmates online about your experiences, commenting on and replying to their posts as much as possible. I look forward to a thoughtful discussion about your experiences on Thursday.
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At first glance, this test seemed a little pointless to me. Associating "good" words with light or dark skinned persons and "bad" words with another seemed like it would produce no tangible outcome. After taking the test, I received the result stating my data suggested no automatic preference between dark skinned people and light skinned people. However, I don't know if I can attribute this to the test itself. I got a few wrong on both sections of the test simply due to my poor hand-eye coordination and the fact that I can't process things quickly when I know how fast I go is being taken into account. I just don't know if this test can accurately indicate internalized preferenes regarding race. While I do think that I have no internalized preferene between dark skinned and light skinned people, when I look at my childhood and where I came from, I have most definitely been exposed to more light skinned people. Being from a suburb of Indianapolis, about 90% of my school corporation was white. Growing up, I never had a teacher who was not white. In high school, I took several AP classes, and there were only 1-2 dark skinned people in my classes. So while I don't automatically associate "bad" words with dark skinned people, my childhood was surrounded by fellow white people. That is one of the biggest reasons I decided to move to Chicago and study at DePaul: the diversity. The real world is not a classroom full of white children with a white teacher. The real world is black, brown, white, and everything in between. I am still trying to remind myself of this when I visit my hometown and am surrounded by white faces. Diversity does exist in this world, but not in some key places that define us. I come from a white washed town, but fortunately enough, I grew up in a family where my parents taught me to see race but never associate it with any preexisting assumptions and stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your point on diversity existing in the world but missing in key places, I think that is incredibly true. Our reading by Carrie Ching does a really good job of highlighting this as well by explaining that in a lot of public places, diversity is only present at the lowest levels of organizations.
DeleteAt first while taking the IAT, I thought it would be designed to keep track of how often I miscategorized the faces into the respective “good” or “bad” categories, depending on the part’s prompt. I quickly realized, though, that it must be measuring the time taken to make a decision instead. I think this time taken can be a misleading statistic though, as one gets more accustomed to the rules of the “game” over time, so it follows that one would be quicker in part 7 of 7 than they were in part 1 of 7. I’m not sure if the game randomizes the latter of the parts (so sometimes its light-bad first and others its light-good first), but if not, the results (mine being “a preference for dark-skinned people over light-skinned”) may be skewed due to this design. All this aside though, I felt a pressure I put on myself not only be not racist, but to be anti-racist. This pressure may or may not have actually manifested itself in my response/response time, but I think this pressure comes from an acknowledged internalization of a lot of racism, classism, etc. from my childhood and early adolescence before I began to critically think for myself.
ReplyDeleteEmma, I agree with your response on how the thought of your speed effecting your results can cause you to answer incorrectly, but what interested me most in your discussion was your theory. The pressure manifesting within and causing you to answer the question a certain way. Do you think if Professor Epstein did not mention anything about race in the blog discussion your answers would've been different?
DeleteThe question asking how my skin tone compared with others in my racial/ethnic group was odd to me. This may be because as a Latina, my ethnic group is very diverse and broad in terms of skin tone. I think that one thing that has always left me a bit unsettled are the questions asking about one’s race and then asking if I’m Hispanic/Latino. Ultimately my uneasiness with this line of questions is the fact that most of the categories for race seem imprecise, specifically because I know many people who identify as Latino and describe themselves as white, but do not receive the systematic benefits white people do. Some may only choose “white” because there is no other option that would seem even the least bit accurate. I could identify as “American Indian” but to a certain extent, my indigenous background ended with my great grandmother, as I do not actually practice indigenous traditions or face the struggles that indigenous people do throughout Latin America. I suppose what I liked about this questionnaire is that it gives me the option of answering ”other” in terms of race. My data suggested no automatic preference between dark skinned people and light skinned people, I don’t know if timing the way people answer these questions is particularly accurate in gauging the way people see dark or light skin, however, I think that having a preference for a skin tone does seem like internalized colorism... I think colorism plays a huge role in race relations so I don’t think these questions simply test “preference”. I think that it tests internalized biases and if one does have a preference towards light skinned people per se, said person should become aware of that and work to reverse this “preference” as having a preference in terms of skin tone can culminate to passive racism. Passivity to these kinds of biases still contributes to colorism and racism, because seeing ones skin tone and judging character off of that may not be overt colorism but it ultimately is the kind of sentiment people can pass down to their children as “normal” judgement or preference.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, these tests are designed to uncover internal biases in those who take them. It’s a valiant endeavor, to force people to see the racial biases they spurn in others in themselves. These tests are not only to provoke us, they are to show us our conditioning. No one, despite their best intentions and efforts, can escape pernicious racist systems. As much as we as individuals exist in systems, systems and ideologies also live in us. That can feel overwhelming and like a trap, no matter where we turn, but I think there’s power to be seized there as well. If systems and ideologies live in us, we have the power to change them where they touch us. We have the power to reject what does not feel right in us, what does not contribute to the world we want to live in. Conditioning which indicates where and what times we exist in, but our fight lies in the construction of our character, who we decide we are. Steve Biko said, “the most powerful tool in the hands of the oppressor, is the mind of the oppressed.” If we do not cede our capacity to change ourselves and we seize our ability to change the world around us, it does not matter what powers are working against us. We’re the ones with power in this world. It all begins and ends with us. We have agency in changing ourselves, and as we do so, we change our politics, we change our culture, and then, we change our country.
ReplyDeleteAlissa Vance
DeleteI had to take the same IAT last spring for a political psychology class. Even though I already knew what to expect for the test, I was curious to see if I would hold the same results and opinions after taking it for a second time. Not to my surprise, my results and feelings about the test are virtually the same.
ReplyDeleteLike the people that have posted before me, I have some frustrations with the IAT. I do not think that it accurately captures people’s attitudes towards race. Like Claire, I too find difficulty with hand-eye coordination. I think that it’s very easy to “zone out” during the test and to lose focus and what you’re doing. When I’m matching the words with the images, I can become more focused on trying to get the correct answer than recognizing any associations between the questions.
Also, in relation to American identity, I think that the IAT would produce inaccurate information about American’s attitudes towards race. Obviously there are racist people in the United States. However, I think that there are very few people that would openly admit having any negative or unpopular racial attitudes. So, even if someone who holds these beliefs were to take the IAT, it’s likely that they would manipulate their responses so that their results don’t truly reflect their implicit associations. Overall, I question the IAT’s accuracy in determining people’s racial attitudes.
I found this test very interesting and I had been wanting to take an IAT test for a long time now, so I'm excited to talk about how this test evaluates internal bias. The most interesting part of this exercise in my opinion is how the test in itself can imitate biases by training a person's association between certain skin colors and bad or good words. After the first go around where the lighter skin colors were being associated with negative words and darker skin colors were associated with positive words, I began to keep this association when the next part of the test began. There was no cognitive thought process obviously because the goal is to move quickly with the associations, but I really did start to feel the subconscious associations the test was asking me to make start to stick as the test went on. This is not to say that I started to actively believe what the test was presenting, but I do think that after it showed certain words and faces being associated, subconsciously it was easier to group those together when the skin colors and the words were switched. I thought this was extremely interesting and really attests to how easy it can be to influence the subconscious bias of a person on something as small as associations and representation.
ReplyDeleteOn the IAT Test, I received the result “Your data suggest no automatic preference between Dark Skinned People and Light Skinned People.” This is honestly what I was expecting, because I would really hope that I don’t have any kind of preference. However, I agree with what both Claire T. and Claire M. noted, in that I question how great this test is at confirming some sort of inherent preference or bias based on skin color. I definitely see what the test was trying to do. It’s a classic racist tactic to assign negative words to people with certain appearances, and President Trump certainly loves to employ it, particularly when talking about Hispanic individuals. These buzzwords quickly incite rage, and send people into an easy frenzy about whatever group is being named monstrous. It’s something worth looking into, but I don’t think that the style of the test is conducive to spotting that bias in people. In my opinion, it’s too much like a game, and someone could easily turn off their opinions in order to just “win” the game. I think a more open ended activity, such as showing one of those images and having people write the first word that comes to mind, would be far more telling. But even a method like that would have it's issues. Having discussions about implicit bias is so important, though, so if a simple activity like this can simply start the conversation, and that’s pretty good on it’s own.
ReplyDeleteI have taken the IAT a few times before for other classes in the past, so going into it this time I was familiar with how the test worked. My results indicated that I have no skin tone preference, but like a few others above, I'm not sure how accurate the test is. People with poor hand-eye coordination might receive inaccurate results, or others who do actually have a racial preference might not want to reveal their attitudes. It's difficult to reveal true biases from a quick online test. Thinking about my results, it is interesting to consider my background and where I came from. I grew up in the suburbs here, so I was surrounded by majority white people for almost all my life. While that was my reality, I was taught to be welcoming towards everyone and not to associate certain groups with "good" or "bad".
ReplyDeleteI took this test for a psychology class, so I already knew what to expect when taking the IAT test again. Like the above authors mentioned, I can see why this test can be problematic in that it can be very easy to zone out, especially because you’re gazing at a bright white screen for a long period of time. But overall, I think the IAT does an interesting job at discerning the internal biases that a lot of us might have.
ReplyDeleteI personally got a result for “moderate automatic preference for light skinned people over dark skinned people,”which personally does not surprise me as I grew up in a predominantly white area of Chicago and the northwest suburbs. The church and school that I attended were mostly white, and it wasn’t until going to DePaul where I had my first nonwhite teacher. I always notice my mom, who is 100% Chinese, be the only person of color whenever we go out in public. Moreover, as someone in a police family, at an early age I was taught negative stereotypes about people of color (which of course, I wholeheartedly reject). I think that’s one of the points that the IAT is trying to prove. It’s one thing to say that you’re not racist but it’s another thing to say that you’ve fully unlearned the implicit biases that American culture instills in us at an early age.
However, one concern I have with the IAT is that it seems to be the “end-all, be-all” for detecting implicit biases. The test seems to function like a video game, and with a game comes ways to cheat it. A lot of people do not like to admit that they are racist or have racial biases, especially those who subscribe to the notion that we live in a “post-racial” society, so they’re going to find ways to make the test give the result they want. Nevertheless, I think the test is a great way to at least give us an idea of how we’re complicit in more racial biases than we think.
I totally relate to your experience coming from the northwest suburbs as well. I think that the "norms" that we are taught have a lot to do with growing up in predominantly white areas and this test does make a good point to highlight those implicit, and likely unintentional preferences.
DeleteMy results were “no automatic preference between Dark Skinned People and Light Skinned People” Even though that statement is true and I do not have a preference, I am still questioning whether the test is accurate. My experience with this test has made me feel very uncomfortable. A pattern that I stated to realize towards the end of quick assessments was that they would first display a person of color on the screen and right after would put a “bad” word. I felt as if that was done intentionally to trick the person taking the test into believing that. Also, when taking this test, I didn’t go into it with the perception that they were going to tell me which skin color I preferred, I went into thinking that time is what matters. Meaning, that perhaps the faster I took, the more likely that I’d be considered “less to care about skin color” since I didn’t have to think about twice which good or bad words affiliated with dark or light skin colors. I also hate answering questions about my ethnicity and race because I never truly know what to put for race, because there is no category for latinx or even hispanic. So I left that unanswered.
ReplyDelete(Julissa Martinez-Rosales)
My result for the test was this: Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Light Skinned People over Dark Skinned People. I'm not surprised by the answer as it's been a topic covered in a multitude of classes before. When talking about surroundings specifically, I grew up in a wealthy-Middle Class and above town, that was predominantly, light-skinned. I'm aware that my environment growing up had a lack of diversity, and that definitely plays a roll in this test. The overall test itself was really interesting to me personally because the objective wasn't to necessarily get the pictures and keys lined up correctly, the main objective seemed to be going as fast as possible, and if a mistake occurred, a red X would appear until you chose the right answer. I'm inclined to be critical of the initial questions before the survey actually begins. I know it is certainly for polling date for IAT to pull out later and say "Hey look, THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE, as a majority are this" which is not my favorite way of categorizing people based on gender, ethnicity, and political views, but hey, that's how they're doing it. Overall, I got a response at the end of the test, I wasn't sure what to make of it besides knowing that the test says I have a certain preference and that I should be "aware" of my environments and how I've grown up.
ReplyDeleteYour statement speaks for a lot of people Ryan! I also grew up in a light-skinned neighborhood and never really experienced much racial diversity until I reached high school where I talked to everyone of every race, culture, and ethnicity. I never succumbed to fit the high school social hierarchical that based itself primarily on race and similar cultures spending time together. I also agree with the inaccuracy of categorizing the "majority" based on so many conflicting variables that need to be sorted out before a proper display of a certain "majority" can come into purview.
Delete-Olivia Piotrowski
DeletePersonally, I believe this was testing memorization and recall, rather than what is my "automatic preference." I would contest to the fact that this test could have showed two different colors such as red and blue with the words "good" and "bad" and the results may have showed me that my automatic preference leans toward the color red. I disagree. I like red and blue equally as I do have respect and no preference for any race, whether the person be light skinned, dark skinned, etc. My result was, "Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Light Skinned People over Dark Skinned People," which is not true, and although it is not, I must mention that I have horrible memory (lol), so trying to memorize which side had bad and which was good whilst moving quickly with the colors of the people, it was not an easy task to complete.
ReplyDeletePolitically, I believe there is no such race that identifies an American. As I can recall from the first reading, anyone can be American -- and they can. America is diverse. The reason why I chose to come to DePaul all the way from Kentucky was because there was no diversity from where I came, let alone the idea that all races were equal. My hometown was completely red and full of people who wore Trump shirts and confederate flags on their pickup trucks. What really is the American identity? America is diverse with race and color. America is beautiful in that we are filled with a rainbow of people. But race is not everything and people must see past that. I know that my results were not accurate because I have no preference for any race or identity, but I will always treat an individual the way they would like to be treated.
Jane Pallos
DeleteI think this is a very interesting perspective on the test Jane! I agree that it seems more focused memorization than on actual skin color preference. Nonetheless, I can see how this test might draw attention to a socialized bias that we have, but may not act on. It seems to me that, however accurate or inaccurate the test is, it is more important to be self-reflective about the inherit biases we may possess, rather than to be told by a test, in order to be able to stop those biases from putting others down.
DeleteWhile taking the test, I felt confident in memorizing the different faces and words associated with each skin tone. My results came out as: "“no automatic preference between Dark Skinned People and Light Skinned People” which accurately assesses my viewpoints of race since I do not carry any assumptions of division based on skin color. However, the format of the test worries me because in real life, the faces of the drawings I compared do not resemble reality. It seemed as though they were made to fool you because of their intersecting shades of skin tone which can confuse others taking it. Some skin tones appeared "mixed" rather than simply "dark." On a different note, this test relates to the construction of a national identity because it puts our assumptions to the test by attempting to see whether we can clearly correlate "good" terms with Dark Skinned People AFTER we connected them to the light skinned people first. Our national identity should not have any preconceived notions of certain races of people but, depending on psychological factors affected by family life, education, and environment, these assumptions can become so ingrained in our human psyche that they become subconscious. I felt like this test tries to put those assumptions into perspective and teach us the intricacy associated with racial characterization.
ReplyDelete-Olivia Piotrowski
DeleteI definitely think this test gets at a subconscious aspect of our social construction of race and at judgements and perceptions that we have internalized so deeply we may not even realize it. I do not think that the results of this test serve to label a person as racist or not, or to judge our unique perceptions. However, I do think that it gets at a deeper, more internalized aspect of race. I may not consciously associate a positive or negative term with a specific race, but perhaps institutions around me do. I found it interesting that my category was also the highest scoring category, which suggests that our identities and the way we view race are more internalized than we may think. Although I may hold the opinion that an entire race cannot be defined as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ there is absolutely rhetoric, imagery etc. in my environment, though it may be subtle, that categorize certain aspects of race into these categories.
ReplyDeleteOn this test, I got the result of a “moderate automatic preference for Light Skinned People over Dark Skinned People,” something I was actually very surprised by. I have taken this test before about 2 years ago while still in high school and got “no perference,” so I was shocked to see how much my results have changed. Although I do not believe I have gotten more prejudiced or biased, I am curious to know what caused this shift. While in high school, I lived in a community that was an overwhelming majority of light-skinned people and nearly all of my classmates looked like me. I would say the only thing that has changed since leaving home was exposure to more diverse skin tones. I think that part of the reason for the change was just that I had constructed a version of identity and specifically an “American identity” at home that I now have to work to deconstruct. Prior, I had not had to really think about skin-tone and identity very much and now the issue has become much more prominent in my daily life.
ReplyDeleteAt first, when I started answering the IAT, I was wondering what kind of question will I be asked. Then I release that these questions will be about my life and culture, yet to found out that these were questions about my views on race and background. When I was going through the questions, it was asking me good and bad and campiring words to people’s race. My results said that the data that I enter in this test suggests no automatic preference between Dark Skinned People and Light Skinned People. In my view, these results came out understandable or at least for me they were. I was born and raised in the middle east countries which thats why I fit in the dark description. However, my siblings are much lighter and brighter than me. This doesn't mean we don't belong to one family, it just means that they were born in the United State and I was born overseas. But overall, I think the IAT did an interesting job of discerning the internal biases of race and different skin colors that a lot of us might have. I might have one of my outside friends try this test and see their results and opinion.
ReplyDeleteI have never taken a test like the IAT before so I did not know what to expect. I definitely did not expect the game towards the end of the exam which ultimately formed my result; “Strong Automatic Preference for Light Skinned People over Dark Skinned People.” I personally feel that the game was a bit pointless. How can you measure what race someone prefers through how fast you can comprehend the questions? I am a slow thinker to begin with and I really like to take my time. I focused more on getting everything right than wrong. Then once I got my result, I realized the game is how the IAT measured what I preferred. I originally was hoping for an exam that would really test me and how I truthfully feel. Questions on how I feel about certain races, maybe if there are some stereotypes I believe in, etc. not some silly game. If I’m honest, I have some feelings about every race and if the IAT asked me more personal, in-depth questions, then I’d be able to say that it is a good and accurate test. But the IAT was boring to me as I was hoping for a more scandalous test. As Ryan mentioned, the IAT will use our results for collective data. This makes me wonder how will they classify the results? For one of the questions asked how my skin tone was, which I am very pale compared to the rest of my family who is all olive-skinned. It was also annoying for me to put “Other” when asked what my race was because as usual, coming from a minority group that does not have their own country, my race-which I am Assyrian, is never listed! I wonder what IAT defines “Other” as. I feel like that can affect the results at times.
ReplyDeleteMy result for the test was that I demonstrated no automatic preference between Dark Skinned People and Light Skinned People. Even though, I got the result I was hoping for the test does not demonstrate an accurate preference between Dark Skinned People and Light Skinned People. Your result was determined how fast you distinguished between good and bad seven times. I sometimes found myself making mistakes due to my poor hand coordination. I believe that the most accurate to demonstrate your true preference was through the disturbing and hard questions it asked in the beginning. If someone answered honestly it would show a more accurate result. When answering those questions, it took me a while to answer since they were questions I never asked myself. It required a deep analysis of the person I thought myself to be. One’s preference has to do with the environment they grew up living in and where they live now. Growing up I lived in a neighborhood predominantly Hispanic meanwhile I attended schools and worked in jobs that were predominantly white. Despite the difference in environment, I always found myself comfortable with people with the same background as mine and quite nervous with those opposite to me.
ReplyDeleteI have never taken an IAT test before so I was interested to see what kinds of questions they would ask to determine a skin tone bias. After taking the test I agree with Ally F., the test is too much like a game and I became too focused on learning how to “beat” it. Playing it like a game, I got better at it as the rounds progressed, and my quickest rounds ended up being towards the end of the test. With the amount of rounds played however, I did lose focus at times and any internal skin tone bias most likely appeared in the results. This test definitely forces people to look at their results and consider any possible racial biases they have and to reflect on where they stem from. My results showed a “slight preference for light skinned people,” the result confused me at first because I do not think I have any skin tone biases, but growing up in a predominantly white suburb in Southern Illinois it makes sense. I would like to take the test again and see if I get similar results.
ReplyDeleteGiven the fact that I have taken multiple IAT tests previously, I was already aware of what to expect. With this said, this was my first time taking the Skin Tone IAT. Similar to the other IAT tests, I was very curious about how specific adjectives relate to certain skin tones. I tend to question how the methods of this test come to find accurate conclusions about implicit bias. I believe there can be a variety of cofounding variables that skew the results, such as hand-eye coordination. I also find it difficult to believe that such a limited set of questions can come to define one’s level of implicit bias. In regards to the “American identity”, I do not believe that one can draw a conclusion about that from taking an implicit bias test. I believe the American identity takes many different forms, regardless of race or gender. Thus, it is extremely hard to draw a conclusion about the American identify off this simple test.
ReplyDeleteThis was my first time taking an IAT test and the results were very interesting. I was not expecting the "game" or test at the end of the questionnaire. The test result said that I had "not automatic preference for dark or light skinned people" I was very intrigued by the idea of correlating the sight words with the different races shown. I believe that the immediate instinct for me is to criticize the test for being set up like a video game and not taking into account the ability of the person to take such a test but after thinking about it. I believe that this game is set up in this way to get your gut reaction and that is best done through this setting. If it was set up, otherwise it would be much easier to ‘cheat the system and get your desired result. I think this test was telling for me because it was a gut reaction to each word or picture. I believe that this test cannot be used in a discussion of “American Identity” because it only correlated between white and black but clearly the “American Identity” is much more diverse than that and fails to account for Latinx Americans or Asian Americans.
ReplyDeleteMy experience taking this test was interesting. My issue with the game was the categories that you were supposed to define yourself in were not representative of my indetity. For one, the skin color of the people within my ethnic origin does not pertain to the race “white.” Unfortunately when choosing my race, the option for “middle eastern” was not there and when selecting my ethnicity, the choice for “Assyrian” was not there either. When putting yourself into categories that misrepresent your ethnic and racial makeup, you are not going to receive accurate results. As far as the activity went, I think the test did a fair job of getting your most genuine feelings towards skin tone. If the activity was different; the participant would have more time to think about their answers and change it to achieve their desired results. On the other hand, the questionnaire and lack of consideration for human mistakes could have skewed the results as well. All in all, I think the activity reinforced the concept of the effects of social and cultural factors on the way we view race.
ReplyDeleteThis was my first-time hearing about or engaging in an IAT test. It’s an interesting way to try establishing certain correlations relating to implicit bias, however I don’t necessarily buy into the game format as a way to measure this. Some people are able to recognize patterns relatively easily and some are not, which can lead to any number of results and doesn’t establish any type of certainty. My results suggested a slight preference for dark skinned people. While I don’t really put much weight into the results it’s an interesting exercise. I think I don’t have preference for people based on skin tone. Growing up I was in bilingual classes in southern Texas for five years and believe this experience to be crucial to my upbringing and open-minded nature. I think these type of learning dynamics can be useful in breaking stereotypes and learning about cultures other than one’s own. Not sure if this relates to my IAT results but it might.
ReplyDeleteMy result was “strong automatic preference for light skinned people over dark skinned people”. Although I was aware that I am affected by socialized racial biases, when I got this result it seemed almost accusatory. I agree with Valerie that this test seems to be more of a test of memorization. However, I also agree with Patrick, that this test is a great way to at least highlight that we are more complicit to our racial biases than we think. I that my result is very much rooted in the way I was socialized and I recognize that there is some socialized bias that exists. Through my family, education and exposure to many types of media it has pushed me towards this result, although I never act on it. The experience of confronting this has made me very uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteThe construction of race, gender, class, etc. through institutional, interpersonal, and internal construction and socialization affects all of us. I am curious to see if being aware that these identities are socially constructed is a step to beginning to unravel this construction. I feel as though even though I am aware of how identities are socially constructed undoing the effects of it are challenging. I wonder, if the test made guess what your result would be before you completed it, would it change the experience? If it was the case that the test asked me to guess my result and then I took the test and got the same result, it might have felt less accusatory because I was being reflective.
Additionally, I think that recognition and reflection is more important than the result itself. Yes, recognizing racial bias is the way to eradicating it, however because transparency about how identities are constructed for you and what factors play a significant role in that, can be the beginning to an important conversation about how to eventually solve the problem of inequality. These socially constructed hierarchies will not disappear overnight, therefore I believe that day to day rebellions to harmful hierarchies is more effective than simply telling people that the law exists. As this relates to American Identity. I think that a socially constructed racial hierarchy is a deep part of our country's history, but not necessarily a part of our identity. I feel as though, pushing back against our government, uprising, and mobilizing for change is a much larger and powerful part of this country's history. Thus, although this racial hierarchy has existed for a long time, fighting back against this injustice should be recognized as a part of American identity.
(Maggie Mullen)
At first, this test was very tedious. I did not see any correlation between the class and this discussion, but as I was going through it I started to notice a few components within the test that can be related to our discussion. The test starts out with us categorizing what we find to be light skinned or what we find to dark skinned. Following that it combines good and light skinned and bad and dark skinned. Then it is done vice versa were the skin tone is switched with good and bad. The test concluded that I have no automatic preference between Dark Skinned People and Light Skinned People. Although I do not think this test can precisely indicate a person bias towards a certain skin tone. I do believe it gives an idea of ere a person stands regarding their preference. An “ American Identity” is a very complex identity this test implies that we are divided between light skin and dark skin, but I do not agree with it. As an Arab American I consider myself blessed to grow up in a country that has it all. The construction of racial categorization should not be used for discrimination or division, but used as something we take glory in to other countries. Overall this was my first time taking an IAT. I find a series of questions that they use to determine bias interesting, there are some flaws to these test but it does give an overall idea were one stands with certain topics.
ReplyDeleteI am currently taking a class called “Race, Class, and Gender in the Criminal Justice System” and we took an Implicit Bias test for that as well, which was the first time I had ever taken a test like that. I already knew a little bit about what I would experience going into the test and therefore was more prepared and probably had more accurate results. I ended up having a slight preference to light skinned people over darker skinned individuals. I believe this is a good test to take because it challenges our beliefs and the ways we view the world. Obviously, I would like to believe that I have no preference to any individual just based on the color of their skin, and I strive to treat everyone the same no matter the color of their skin, which is what really matters. However, I think it is important to note that we live in a society where almost everyone, even those who are people of color, have been socialized to prefer lighter skin over darker skin. Taking this test just reveals the extent of that socialization and how we have internalized it. It’s natural for people to have implicit biases, and we aren’t able to work towards unlearning them if we never learn about them.
ReplyDeleteThis was my. First time taking any form of IAT test and the methods of questioning were extremely unique and caught me unprepared. For example, going into this I thought it would be some form of survey. The game portion of this test caught me completely off guard. The results of my IAT test were that “Your responses suggested a slight automatic preference for Light Skinned People over Dark Skinned People.” I think the test was useful in seeing how we immediately react to things, given the quick nature of it all. There were some areas of the test that I would question, but overall I found it useful for helping better understand myself and areas which I need to change.
ReplyDelete-Aditya Alapati
DeleteI was pretty shocked about the results of my testing. The manners of the test and the unpredictability caught me by complete surprised and for me it was pretty intense. For the the sudden change in technique was hard to adjust such as going from "E" for bad and "I" to good and then a few minutes later having it reversed really played with my head and tested my reflexes. I saw it more as an exam on reflex then what you "subconsciously" believe. My result was that I basically got a strong preference of light skinned people over dark skinned and I'm Hispanic so I was a little confused by the results. The game portion of this test caught me completely off guard. Seeing the results I kind of see how our society is shaped. My family in Ecuador have a stronger preference for lighter skin than darker skin which I complete disagree on, but how Hazel McLain put it: "Taking this test just reveals the extent of that socialization and how we have internalized it. It’s natural for people to have implicit biases". Perhaps this test made me see that I too have an internal bias that I was not conscious of. I'm curious if others felt the same way
ReplyDeleteThis was my second time taking the IAT test. I first took it years back when I was back in Zimbabwe. I have to say that taking this test revealed how effective it is in revealing your unconscious biases. My results were "Your responses suggested a slight automatic preference for Light Skinned People over Dark Skinned People." I was very surprised, but it got me thinking that people’s preferences and choices are influenced by their setting and who they associate with. Back in Zimbabwe my results were the opposite.
ReplyDeleteThis was my first time taking this type of test. Overall, I was not surprised with my results. I consider myself a very objective person. I hate making any generalizations and try to judge everyone individually. I am particularly interested in where people are from and where they grew up, because I believe this has a major impact on people’s personas and perspective. I thought this test was interesting, but ultimately was pretty simple and could easily be misleading. However, the activity at the end was an interesting test that took a unique approach to uncovering subconscious biases that I would have never thought of using.
ReplyDeleteI had never taken or heard of an IAT test before this blog post assignment, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into. After getting familiar with the objective of the test, it was clear to me that the test is designed to make the test taker subconsciously, or maybe even consciously, associate certain adjectives with skin-tone. I tried to be hyper-aware of this while taking the test. I agree with what a few people said above,that after the test got me into the rhythm and speed of the quiz, it was easier to subconsciously group certain terms together based on association, even if I agreed or not. My result of the quiz was no automatic preference for light-skinned people over dark-skinned people. I believe that is true to real life. I do think the overall method of the test is interesting though to see if people associate terms with identity, whether consciously or not. I also ended up taking the religion IAT test out of curiosity, which gave me the result of moderate automatic preference for Christianity over Islam. This does not surprise me really, as a practicing Catholic who goes to Church each week and is involved in faith-based extra-circulars. I attribute my automatic preference for Christianity due to those facts, not the fact that I value people who are Christian over other religious people, which is what I think the test may imply based on your perception of it.
ReplyDeleteI had never taken this test before and at first I just felt that it was testing how well I was following its instructions. I found myself getting quicker at pressing the keys as I went along. My results were that I had a “no automatic preference for light-skinned people over dark-skinned people.” I think that this is in part because I went to a very diverse high school were I was able to understand and interact with a variety of people. However, I can see how different people can score differently and how their results might come as a surprise because we never really think about “our preference” to different types of people on a day to day basis. Racial, sometimes unconscious biases and assumptions are prevalent when news outlets constantly identify White criminals as “mentally ill” and others as “terrorists” and I think that this test really makes us reflect on this. Overall, I think I would be interested to see what the researchers or creators of this test had in mind or what experiences in their lives compelled them to make this test.
ReplyDelete