The Test You Are About To Take, Known As The “Implicit Association Test,” Offers One Way To Probe Unconscious Biases. In This 10-minute Test, You Will Be Presented With Words Or Images And Asked To Respond As Quickly As Possible. At The End, Your Responses Will Be Tallied So That You Can See How Your Score Compares To Others And To Your Expectations (these Responses Will Also Be Saved And Tabulated As Part Of An Investigation Of Implicit Associations). | Kampusguide

The test you are about to take, known as the “Implicit Association Test,” offers one way to probe unconscious biases. In this 10-minute test, you will be presented with words or images and asked to respond as quickly as possible. At the end, your responses will be tallied so that you can see how your score compares to others and to your expectations (these responses will also be saved and tabulated as part of an investigation of implicit associations).

This exercise’s intent is to raise your awareness regarding your own conscious and unconscious perceptions.  Consider whether your conscious and subconscious perceptions are congruous, and how these perceptions potentially influence how you interact with people and events in your personal and professional life.

This exercise presents the Implicit Association Test (IAT). It is a method designed to demonstrate conscious-unconscious perceptions. The information may be most valuable if you remain open-minded about the process and results. After taking the test answer the questions in this handout referring to your experience.

 Instructions for the assignment:

1. Go to the Website: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ (Links to an external site.)
2. Sign in as a guest
3. When you get to the list of tests available, take four tests: Disability; Sexuality; one of the two Gender tests, and one of the Race tests (may select one focusing on a specific group, or skin tone).
4. When you finish you will be given “results”.
5. Answer each of the following questions in one document that is three pages. You may address all four tests together in a comparative approach, or discuss each one separately. If you complete more than four tests, please submit one page discussion for each of these and you will receive extra credit, which will be applied at the end of the semester.

Assignment questions:

1. Did your scores surprise you? What did you learn from this activity?
2. Assuming that the results you received reflect unconscious cultural conditioning, please describe what personal, social, generational, and cultural experiences might have influenced your test and the result? (Please note in this question we are not asking your opinion of the test, whether you like it, or if it is valid).
3. How do our films and readings help us understand some factors, which might influence our unconscious biases?
4. Prior to the IAT, data on racial (or other preferences) were collected by asking the participant to self-report their prejudices and preferences about race.   How do you think the data from the IAT might compares with the self-report data?