IAT

[TR Shadow]

I just read about these in a book I'm reading and thought they were really interesting so I took one. It showed me how hard of a time I have associating 'good' with African Americans and said I have an extreme preference for white people.? I've never thought of myself as racist, but the test tells me I am on a subconscious level.? Odd.

What do you guys think of these?? Is there something to them or not?? Discuss.

To take one, go to www.implicit.harvard.edu.

[Gen. Volkov]

Well I would, but the link is bad.

However, I believe that if you don't think you are racist, you probably aren't

[TR Shadow]

Yeah, soryy, I typed in the link wrong.  Fixed.

[Soccer [The Great]]

Link still isn't working for me.

[TR Shadow]

OK.  I promise it will work now.  =\

[Gen. Volkov]

It worked, and I still think it's probably not a great method of determining something.

[TR Shadow]

Well, the tests were designed by Harvars professors to measure subconscience associations, or something like that.

[Gen. Volkov]

Well let's put it this way, it said I have a slight preference for European American's vs Asian Americans, when I know the opposite to be true. Unless I can't understand them... lol.

[Deathclaw]

Said I have a strong automatic preference for whites over blacks.

[Vengerak]

None of this makes you "subconsciously racist" at all, it's simply down to the perfectly natural tendencies of human beings to gravitate toward their own "kind".? The immediate family is the group you usually feel the profoundest loyalty to--people who are the most biologically similar to yourself.? This is followed by your extended family.? After that it might be your community--is all likelihood if a certain soccer, baseball or football team or whatever is considered local to your city or town or whatever, you will support it.? Then your local region; taking Scotland as an example, are you from the east or the west? Are you a highlander or a lowlander? This then extends on to, say, the nation you live in.? You are a likely to be a Polish patriot if you are Polish, unlikely to be a Polish patriot if you are Venezuelan.? And, again taking my country as an example, if you live in the UK you will probably consider yourself Scottish, Welsh, Irish etc. first and British second (then European dead last).

It seems only logical that this sense of "getting behind your group" should extend to your race, especially in this age of identity politics.? If anything blacks and other minority groups tend to do this a lot more than whites (the establishment tending to look down on "white pride" etc.).? That's why you get all the talk of "my brother"--which again hearkens towards that group you usually feel closest to: your family.

All of this is perfectly natural--racism implies a hatred or mistrust of other races, and that is not what this is at all.? Heck, I for one happen to share Volkov's apparent...erm...fondness...for orientals.? If you're a white person and most of your friends are white, then I wouldn't worry about it; you're probably unlikely to find yourself cutting holes in your pillowcase to fashion a Klan hood without realising it.?

[Gen. Volkov]

I would have to agree, xenophobia to at least some extent seems to be hard wired into humans. Kinda makes sense, back in the days when we were just individual tribes of hunter gatherers, fearing your neighbor made sense. He could do anything, like trying to take your prime hunting ground. It actually seems to be something common to all primates. You can see it in nearly every species of primate, when they meet a rival clan or troop. It only makes sense that humans would have it as well. But, as you said, just because we are xenophobes, doesn't mean we are automatically racist. You don't automatically hate what you fear, and today's society promotes a lessening of that xenophobic tendency, because countries are so racially diverse, you get used to those different from you, and broaden your sense of what's "family".

Note: I wrote this when I was half awake, so any inconsistencies in writing, logic or any other errors, I blame on that.

[Gorak]

The tests are a complete waste of time

the order in which they present the questions is designed to trip you up so you get the intended result,
so they can get press about how evil our society has become (their tests will tell you so :roll:) and get more grants.
It's a pathetic attempt to get more funding, nothing more. 

it's complete B.S.

[windhound]

heh.  I thought it was funny, on the fat vs thin test (which was the only one I looked at), most of the fat people were downright ugly.  Not to be mean or anything, there are some fat people that look alright.  But some of the ones in the test must have had other conditions or somthin, they just didnt look right. 
All the thin people were either good or decent looking. 
So even if the method could work, they themselves threw in bais.  I think ugly people are ugly, it has nothin to do with their weight, though somtimes the problem can be made worse by obseity.

*shrug*