Let's Get Triggered! Science Within!

datalol-jack

datalol-jack

datalol-jack

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1 Mar 2010
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Many a GD thread has revolved around implicit biases or lack of thereof, but why not plump the collective lizard brain for some actual data? Behold! -- 7 Implicit Association Tests for your clicking pleasure and Harvard's data harvesting operations.

Background: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/uk/background/index.jsp
Tests: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/uk/selectatest.jsp

In short, the above-linked psychological judo is trying to get at your automatic responses which, given you haven't fudged the tests, should fall more or less in line with the predominant cultural norms. (Although the work around the IATs is mostly to do with cognitive illusions.) Are you what you say you are? Find out!

My results:

Sexuality: Slightly pro-gay! :eek::cool:
Weight, Race, Countries, Skin-tone, Age: Moderate automatic preference for the default re myself and my background (Thin, White, UK, Light, Young)
Gender: Feminism, I have failed you. :p

Takes a few minutes; not multi-choice; you can ignore the questionnaire bits, unless you wanna feed the site some data. Do not disappoint me, GD!
 
Weight - Hate fatties
Age- No or little preference
Race- Slight pro black people
Gender - Gave up.
Gayness - Flaming homosexual (which is weird for a straight person (I think)).
 
Diddums said:
Is this true? Do you bat for the other team?
Click to expand...

I'm a biplane by design and persuasion. Free love!

In this light, the result is fairly spot on -- moderate for me -- but since most of the sampled population isn't, it drops me slightly towards the other end of the distribution. Fair play to Harvard bods, really.
 
I did the race one and because I became a bit mixed up due to how they've structured the response system, ie. mapping the I and E keys one way then changing them slightly at the end, resulted in me being racist (well, biased against black people) as I was quicker to respond at the beginning than at the end and made fewer errors at the beginning.
 
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I only did three of them. More interesting than the usual rubbish attempts to reduce complex beliefs to two sentences. Also, I think it's worth highlighting that we (and our attitudes) are much more than forced rapid-reflex responses. For example, I came out with a slight anti-gay bias (which I think is accurate), but it doesn't mean that I would ever be against gay marriage. I can self-analyse and assess objectively whether something is right or wrong. Nor, even though I find it slightly unpleasant, am I ever likely to say or act negatively towards a lesbian couple because of it because that would be wrong. Same way my body might want to fart but I don't.

Anyway, my results were:
  • Slight association of Female with Science and Male with Liberal Arts.
  • Moderate automatic preference for Straight People compared to Gay People.
  • A moderate automatic preference for the United Kingdom compared to the United States
I suspect the first one (association of Female with Science and Maths) is because I am female and regard both of those as "my subjects". But hey, I'm alright with a little bit of counter-bias in this one instance given the prevailing attitudes in society! The rest seem accurate to me as well.

datalol-jack said:
I'm a biplane by design and persuasion. Free love!
Click to expand...

Is biplane a related category to Attack Helicopters? It's so hard to keep track of gender politics, these days.

Antar Bolaeisk said:
I did the race one and because I became a bit mixed up due to how they've structured the response system, ie. mapping the I and E keys one way then changing them slightly at the end, resulted in me being racist (well, biased against black people) as I was quicker to respond at the beginning than at the end and made fewer errors at the beginning.
Click to expand...

I would hope they make some allowance for that. For example, they ask at the start how many of the other tests you have completed presumably for this reason. Though who knows how accurate this test is? It should never be treated more as a stimulus for introspection / consideration, let alone an accurate assessment. For example, the Nationalism one (if this methodology works at all) was probably highly skewed by their picking the USA as their alternate. If they'd picked Germany or Holland, I'd have probably come out as the opposite result as I like both of those countries very much.
 
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