People have taken more than 200,000 tests that measure
unconscious components of prejudice and stereotyping since
twin Web sites were opened to the public last year by
psychologists from the University of Washington and Yale
University.
One of the Web tests measures automatic racial
preference for white or black. Of the more than 61,000 who
took this test, 80 percent showed a preference for white over
black. Fifty percent exhibited this preference at a
statistically strong level.
The sites were created with four short tests that measure unconscious roots of racism, ageism, gender stereotyping and self-esteem. A fifth test, measuring academic preferences for arts or mathematics was added later. People can take the tests by logging onto the sites at http://depts.washington.edu/iat/ or www.yale.edu/implicit/.
The Web tests are a spinoff of a psychological tool called the Implicit Association Test created by University of Washington psychology professor Anthony Greenwald and developed in collaboration with Mahazarin Banaji, a Yale psychology professor. The test measures unconscious or automatic associations, including those that underlie prejudice and stereotyping. The test was developed with funding from National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health.
Even stronger than the race-preference findings were the results for almost 50,000 age-preference tests that showed 90 percent with an automatic preference for young over old. Seventy-five percent showed this at the statistically strong level.
"These
tests offer people a do-it-yourself opportunity to measure
their automatic race, age and gender associations," said
Greenwald. "Probably a large proportion of people visiting
do not consider themselves to be prejudiced and they are
taking the tests to learn about these ordinarily hidden
associations that in some cases could produce unintended
discriminatory behavior."
Greenwald said he and his
colleagues also are receiving a steady volume of e-mail from
visitors to the sites with reactions that include a very
small number of obscenities and somewhat more disbelief and
rejection of the interpretations of the tests, along with
expressions of surprise and appreciation for learning about
previously submerged thought processes.
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For more
information, contact:
Greenwald at (206) 543-7227 or
agg@u.washington.edu
or Banaji at (203) 432-4547 or
mahzarin.banaji@yale.edu
