Summary
The article about Implicit Association Test (IAT) discusses the test and the issues it raises (Abagond, 2009). The objective of the test is to determine how fast people can relate words with pictures to examine their thoughts about topics like sex, age, and race. The IAT focuses on testing people’s thoughts about racism.
Compared to other tests, the IAT is different because even though it was created for racism tests, the designer held a strong preference for whites subconsciously because he was white.
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80 per cent of whites prefer other whites than other races. Whites can, thus, easily associate specific good words like love or peace with white faces and bad words like evil and terrible with black faces.
The IAT test examines the deep subconscious thoughts of people as the test must be completed fast without further examination of the questions. It is, thus, possible for even non-racist whites to demonstrate a strong preference for whites unintentionally when they attempt the test. Even 42 per cent of Black Americans have a tendency to think about white as good and black as bad subconsciously.
External factors can also influence people to perform differently when taking the test. For example reading about the positive contribution of black people, thinking about famous black people like Nelson Mandela, or watching videos in which blacks win contribute positively to the country can turn the score outcomes to show a preference for blacks.
The conclusion of the article raises questions about the meaning of the test in relation to the origin of the issue of racism and in relation to white police officers and teachers dealing with blacks.
Personal Thoughts
The article offers insightful information about our innate ability to reach decisions instantly. It demonstrates that we can show what we always think about subconsciously in an instant. That instant is what we need because if we attempt to obtain extra information, we may fail to make insightful decisions. The article does a good work of explaining why taking the IAT test without thinking about it yields accurate results instead of delaying to factor in too much information.
The article also demonstrates an unsettling example of how we think about race. It shows that while we select our attitudes consciously, the disregarded information that we acquire subconsciously influences us deep in our minds unwillingly. At this point, we must, thus, be very careful because our subconscious attitudes can influence us to act in a certain way towards other races. For example, when a white police officer shoots a black person the police officer does so because of being influenced by subconscious thoughts about blacks.
The article demonstrates the importance of acknowledging the power of the instant thoughts we have in our lives. It is, thus, crucial to consider our instant thoughts by attempting to control them in every situation.
Even though the test results showed that I am not racist, the IAT test outcomes raise a number of questions. For example, do people score differently based on the amount of time they spent thinking about racial discrimination? Do we develop negative associations with other races after being exposed to the issues they face?
The IAT results show that multiple unknown factors influence the performance of different people. Otherwise, why would someone score differently when thinking about Nelson Mandela before taking the test?
The test teaches us that race relations can change just as our scores can change when we think about a famous person.
Reference
Abagond. (2009, January 27). IAT: Implicit Association Test. Retrieved November 5, 2018, from https://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/iat-implicit-association-test/
