Implicit Association Test Reflection

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The idea of a test that evaluates what I am thinking subconsciously, with results alleging that I am a racist, gay-basher infuriates me. I do not hold explicit biases based on race, skin tone, weapons or sexuality, yet the results of my tests show that I do. The test is suppose to measure unconscious or automatic associations with positive and negative words when they are paired up with black and white people, gays and straights, and violent and non-violent weapons. In my opinion all it measured was my hand-eye coordination. The test tricked my brain into making biased choices towards members of other social groups. The test patterns presented to me not only made my eyes blurry, but also gave me a massive headache. The pictures presented were easy to distinguish what category they belonged to. When the pictures were paired with positive and negative words, I had the most difficulty categorizing them. The test would start with a pattern, and when my brain got used to the pattern, it suddenly changed prompting me to make biased choices. The results from the second set of tests that I had taken completely contradicted the results from the first set of tests taken. For example, when I took the race test for the first time it stated that I had a slight automatic preference for European American’s compared to African American’s. The second time I took the test the results suggested little to no automatic preference between African American’s and European American’s. How could I get two completely different scores when taking the test twice? That prompted me to question the validity and reliability of my test results. I did however notice that when comparing the first test that I had taken with the second test, I changed my responses with my hypothesis pointing to the reasoning that I had taken the test earlier and had prior knowledge of what the test was presenting.

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