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Test That Found Widespread Unconscious Racial Bias Validated

More news stories on Racial Conflict

ScienceDaily, June 18, 2009

{snip}

A new study published this week validates those findings, showing that the Implicit Association Test, a psychological tool, has validity in predicting behavior and, in particular, that it has significantly greater validity than self-reports in the socially sensitive topics of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and age.

The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, is an overview and analysis of 122 published and unpublished reports of 184 different research studies. In this analysis, 85 percent of the studies also included self-reporting measures of the type generally used in surveys. This allowed the researchers, headed by University of Washington psychology Professor Anthony Greenwald, to compare the test’s success in predicting social behavior and judgment with the success of self-reports.

“In socially sensitive areas, especially black-white interracial behavior, the test had significantly greater predictive value than self-reports. This finding establishes the Implicit Association Test’s value in research to understand the roots of race and other discrimination,” said Greenwald. “What was especially surprising was how ineffective standard self-report measurers were in the areas in which the test measures have been of greatest interest—predicting interracial behavior.”

Greenwald created the Implicit Association Test in 1998 and he and Mahzarin Banaji, a Harvard psychology professor, and Brian Nosek, a University of Virginia associate professor of psychology, further developed it. Since then the test has been used in more than 1,000 research studies around the world. More than 10 million versions of the test have been completed at an Internet site where they are available as a self-administer demonstration.

The research looked at studies covering nine different areas—consumer preference, black-white interracial behavior, personality differences, clinical phenomena, alcohol and drug use, non-racial intergroup behavior, gender and sexual orientation, close relationships and political preferences.

{snip}

“The Implicit Association Test is controversial because many people believe that racial bias is largely a thing of the past. The test’s finding of a widespread, automatic form of race preference violates people’s image of tolerance and is hard for them to accept. When you are unaware of attitudes or stereotypes, they can unintentionally affect your behavior. Awareness can help to overcome this unwanted influence,” said Greenwald.

Co-authors of the new study are Banaji, T. Andrew Poehlman of Southern Methodist University and Eric Uhlmann of Northwestern University. The National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, the Third Millennium Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation funded the research.

[Editor’s Note: The article referenced above does not seem to be available on-line yet. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology is available here.]

Original article

(Posted on June 24, 2009)

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Comments

1 — Question Diversity wrote at 5:55 PM on June 24:

Every proper name in this article is probably a left wing professor. Of course they’re going to find bias, because they would be out of jobs if there were no bias. Failing that, Karl Marx called civil rights a “revolution in permanence,” so they would just dig deeper down into the barrel to define bias.

2 — Anonymous wrote at 5:58 PM on June 24:

So, blacks can’t treat whites as if they might be human beings? What else is new. It might be a little disingenuous to point that out, after all, these same researchers are part of the cause.

3 — David K wrote at 6:54 PM on June 24:

Now this is shocking. Truly. Who would’ve thunk it?

I see this in San Fran all the time… the most supposedly tolerant, and, at the same time, one of the most heavily segregated cities in America.

This town may be 7x7 miles, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t large swaths of the City that most whites have never (and will never) set foot in.

When I explain my views on race, the response by white people is usually an initial gasp followed by a “y’know, I’m glad you said that ‘cuz I feel the same way.”

Tolerance is only skin deep.

4 — sbuffalonative wrote at 7:51 PM on June 24:


If these associations are this strong, what’s the reason? Could they be hardwired in our biology?

I doubt such biases could ever be eliminated but that won’t stop the do-gooders from implementing more inclusion and tolerance brainwashing in a vain attempt to create a world of racial love.

The problem is that even if you could lower a persons bias level, a single incident would reset the trigger sending you back to square one.

Let’s say we get black and white kids to mix in a racially harmonious setting. What happens the moment a black boy goes off the deep end and sucker punches a white boy? All the natural defenses re-emerge and you’re back at the beginning.

5 — Svigor wrote at 7:53 PM on June 24:

Ah, so predictive power is important when it comes time to test racial bias (in whites, in all likelihood).

Buuut when it comes to race-realism, predictive power is suddenly unimportant.

6 — ranger wrote at 9:25 PM on June 24:

I just rushed through the article, because I could see right away it amounts to more nonsense from those who have nothing better to do than waste money on idiotic projects.

Can’t all of us…almost….on here just tell them that races have biases in favor of their own tribesmen and against those who are different, and to know that doesn’r require any research or time wasted determining what is perfectly obvious to everyone but a pinhead academic?

I was reading today that the Harvard endowment fund is dropping and that they were cutting more people from their payroll, and that next year is expected to be far worse. It was mentioned also that all the universities were experiencing the same thing.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if professors had to return to teaching again instead of having an aide do it for them? Hopefully, soon they won’t have time to meander off on some kind of hare-brained project that’s totally worthless.

7 — Civilized Neighbor wrote at 9:54 PM on June 24:

There is nothing wrong with holding the biases. The problem is the repressive institutions that force people to lie about them. If I took this test I would try to make the self-reporting estaliblish MORE bias than the test may show.

8 — Istvan wrote at 9:54 PM on June 24:

I was a liberal kid…then I became a victim of black crime and anti-white black racism at work…not to mention general black laziness. Gee, why do I feel uncomfortable around blacks, oh yes…unjustified racism!

9 — Anonymous wrote at 1:53 AM on June 25:

“Awareness can help to overcome this unwanted influence,” said Greenwald.

He’s right. Awareness helped me overcome multicultural dogma and propaganda, and to prefer my own race before others.

10 — Anonymous wrote at 4:38 AM on June 25:

- “Evolution faster when it’s warmer” - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8115464.stm

Could explain why there us so much more genetic diversity amongst equatorial Africans as opposed to the White Europeans and Asians who live in colder northern climates.

11 — elitist wrote at 5:31 AM on June 25:

whites who spend their lives pretending to absolutely adore black people are privately ashamed because they’re only acting.

in truth, they find blacks as a rule incredibly hostile, shockingly alien and in some cases repellent or frightening.

liberal whites often have a token black friend (usually a polished middle-class mulatto professional), meanwhile they are avoid blacks like the plague and lived in white neighborhoods.

speaking from experience, once a white liberal comes clean with themselves and admits that they have enormous difficulties relating to or identifying with most blacks, defined as they have been deceiving themselves all alone.



12 — Anonymous wrote at 7:34 AM on June 25:

They set out to prove bias, and then adjusted their tests to “prove” the bias.

13 — underdog wrote at 7:35 AM on June 25:

How can I take this test?

14 — Fed Up wrote at 7:57 AM on June 25:

>>>Test finds racial “bias” even among people who consider themselves “tolerant.”

Now for the burning question: Should I or anyone else care? That another meaningless test brings out another meaningless statement.

15 — Check it out wrote at 9:19 AM on June 25:

This is stupid. Blacks are known to continually top the list of every anti-social behavior pathology - most violent crime, poorest academic achievement and classroom behavior, poverty, unemployment - and yet liberals are shocked, shocked! to find that there is still bias against blacks.

16 — Simmons wrote at 9:45 AM on June 25:

I consider the white liberal to be the most insidious in the comparison of black and white. We know what we can get from the Africans in respect to behavior, but the white lib is a sociopath who blocks out reality and forces what amounts to genocide upon whites even while they skip off to an all white enclave.

17 — Anonymous wrote at 12:05 PM on June 25:

This notion of “unconscious bias” is the most pernicious and dangerous idea along with behavioral economists who argue that man is inherently irrational. It implies that only a virtuous all-knowing state can “correct” our “inherent” flaws. The Ministry of Thought will save us from our racism and greed!

18 — Peter K wrote at 1:49 PM on June 25:

I think what this test shows is the that people prefer others that resemble themselves. It’s a natural and proven phenomenon and it doesn’t just apply to race. White people prefer other Whites that look like them as opposed to Whites that may have features that differ from them. The test makers are trying to paint this as a racial issue but it’s just basic biology. Human beings are attracted to others that resemble themselves because we are hard wired so that we can easily recognize our kin; it’s has nothing to do with race.

19 — Svigor wrote at 3:04 PM on June 25:

Could explain why there us so much more genetic diversity amongst equatorial Africans as opposed to the White Europeans and Asians who live in colder northern climates.

As I told you at MR in response to your identical post there:

Selection pressure is much greater in cold climes; lower selection pressure and you increase diversity.

20 — Anonymous wrote at 9:03 PM on June 25:

What is “bias” really? If you had to choose between two towns to live in in which one was 99% White and the other 99% black, which would you prefer? Preference is not prejudice.

21 — Schoolteacher wrote at 5:10 AM on June 26:

I have long said that most adult liberals agree with us. Their actions, their choices of where to live and send their kids to school tell more than their words ever will.

22 — Anonymous wrote at 9:49 AM on June 26:

The true definition of the word “discrimination” has bee hijacked by the poverty pimps and race hustlers. It used to be that a person who “discriminated” was merely being selective about the object or person involved. Now, accusations of “discrimination” are treated as crimes (thoughtcrimes) and not merely “choices” when it comes to personal preferences. EVERYBODY discriminates in some way EVERYDAY.
The poverty pimp jesse jackson once said that if he heard footsteps behind him, he was relieved when they were of a white person (and not a black).
Even race hustlers such as jesse jackson and al sharpton KNOW that their race is the source of much crime and misery. However, they will not publicly admit it.

23 — TechnoDan wrote at 2:43 PM on June 26:

“If these associations are this strong, what’s the reason? Could they be hardwired in our biology?”

I remember a report about how babies would react more favorably to pictures of adults who looked like their mother than ones who did not. Seems like the comment from sbuffalonative may be right.


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