www.tolerance.org..or Am I a bigot?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

Please do yourself and your fellow DU'ers a favor and visit it sometime.
Take the tests.
Find out...are you a bigot? Are you intolerant? Are you a sexist?

Find out in the privacy of your own home...and then for the benefit and sanity of the rest of us...

FUCKING DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!


http://www.tolerance.org/hidden_bias/index.html

http://www.tolerance.org/teach/web/wfc/index.jsp

[tx_dem41]

1. Great post, NSMA...

nothing personal, but I am just loving you tonight! :thumbsup:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. I've always considered our disagreements relatively minor

There's several hundred people who I could flame far more than you and I do :D

[tx_dem41]

13. Very cool....

I'm very glad to hear that! :)

[progmom]

2. nominated

i think we could all stand to take a little closer look at ourselves. :hi:

[DanCa]

3. The only ones who am bigoted against

Are the ones who want dont want stem cell because of thier religious beliefs. I have parkinson's and I believe that no ones god, government, or politics, has the right to keep me sick. So yeah I might be bigoted against them but I think I have reason. Plus am man enough to admit it.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Is that really bigotry or anger at their ignorance?

Do you automatically hate all people of faith due to the very loud ones that are withholding a cure from you?

(sorry about the Parkinson's...btw...are your symptoms severe at this point?)

[DanCa]

11. I am at stage two bilateral parkinsons. according to Dr Liberman

And no I dont dissappearage anyone who has religious beliefs. I still go to mass. It's just the one hundred percenters out their that say without exception. And than on top of it all make me feel like a hypocrite for not being anti choice :D Thanks for the thread though its very interesting. Oh and just a shout out Liberal Christians and aethist rock. Wish there were more of both of em.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. I would suggest you are not so much bigoted

as angry at what you perceive as oppression..again..unless you recklessly lash out at all religious people or harbor ill will toward all religious people then I wouldn't consider it bigotry or prejudice, but anger at being repressed by their lack of regard for church/state separation.

[beam me up scottie]

6. What a find!

I already finished one with interesting results.

I am nervous about the rest of them, though, but I will take them.

I guess we all need to look at ourselves a little closer occasionally.

Nominated, excellent post, nsma !!!

[ultraist]

7. Nominated! n/t

[Mythsaje]

8. I'm not a bigot...

I just dislike assholes. Regardless of color, shape, size, gender, religion, education, or sexual orientation. If a person has REAL class, I'm good.

[Mikimouse]

9. I went tehre and all I got was a survey about McDonald's versus

Burger King. What did I do wrong?

[Der Blaue Engel]

10. Apparently I have a strong automatic preference for Black American

compared to White American. (I'm white.) Wonder what this means? To be perfectly honest, I was afraid it was going to say the opposite and expose some hidden racism. I wonder if it also reflects my despair over what's going on right now, and if I'd sway the other direction under other circumstances? Very interesting tests. Thanks NSMA.

edited to clarify what preference meant

[Solon]

12. I find these tests to be odd, weird really...

I remember taking one of those psychological "twitch" tests, associating pictures of black and white people with the words good and evil, etc. By the end of it, the test concluded I had a moderate preference for black people over white people, odd for a white guy I would think. Though, given my background, not odd for me.

Now these "implicit" tests are even odder, decided to try it, and now they are testing me on my preference for numbers and letters. I don't even care, one way or the other, WTF type of test is this?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. I haven't tried those yet

Was just about to...they have a political one too..no?

As I see it, the preference tests are a great guide to allow one to be responsible for what lurks just under their consciousness in a way that they can own it and not be so automatic about things.

[Solon]

24. I just find some of the subjects to be nonsensical...

Not the race/gender/religious/political bias, but things like numbers vs. letters and shit, my test was inconclusive, no surprise there, I'm apathetic over that non-subject.

The funny thing is this, as far as I can tell, whenever I take these tests, especially regarding race/gender(roles etc.)/sexual orientation bias, I defy convention. As a Straight White male, I have more positive associations with females in strong roles, gays and lesbians over straight people, etc.

[marcus_b]

18. Which one did you take?

The tests on the web page of implicit.harvard.edu seem to be of the type "pictures vs words" tests. No numbers or letters. So, they seem to be what you call "twitch tests".

I am not an expert of this field of science, but having done one of the tests myself, I can see what they are getting at, and it seems to me rather sound. Although you never know what exactly you measure, and a spontaneous association under time pressure can of course be overridden by a conscious intervention.

Also interesting are the games on philosophers.net, which poke at your moral values and other things...

[Solon]

26. Your actually right there...

I took the racial bias test, it said that I had a moderate preference for black faces over white faces. The second was numbers vs. letters, test results inconclusive. Also, another thing I notice in these tests, I do what they say, no distractions etc. But I get "zoned" out, where the subjects that I'm supposed to hit, for the letters "E" and "I" at the top corners literally disappear from my vision. I pay too much attention to the center of the screen I think, but I get tunnel vision when that happens. I then have to take a little time to glance back at them directly, to get my "bearings" again, I guess I would call it. I have no clue whether that effects test results or not. I also have nervous system damage in my left arm, I don't know precisely how sensitive this test is, timing wise, but I'm a little "slow" in one arm, not noticable to most people, but I notice it.

[marcus_b]

32. You are supposed to remember the subjects.

You are supposed to memorize what E and I stand for, and hit them quickly from memory. That's why they explain before every section what is left and what is right, so you take notice and can focus on the image/text in the center.

I don't think they measure the time to take you to respond, except maybe to invalidate your response if it takes _too_ long, because then your reaction is not spontaneous and thus the association not "implicit". But I don't actually think they measure that, I think they just ask you to react quickly, and as long as you make your decision which key to press quickly, the time you actually take to press the button doesn't really matter. You would have to ask them to make sure, of course.

I have looked at the tests at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html and found a racial bias test, but not a number/letter test. Not sure where you got it from. I can easily believe that there are weird connections in our brain that can somehow be revealed by an abstract number/letter test, but without seeing the actual test I can't say what it is supposed to be about. I say "supposed" because this whole area of science is rather weak, and inconclusive. As I said in my other post, you can measure "something", but what that "something" is can often not be said with any amount of certainty. Little fundamental is known about human nature, and even less thoroughly understood.

I do appreciate it though how hard it is to overcome the stereotypes, even when trying.

[AuntiBush]

14. Riveting Post, nothingshocksmeanymore!

It's time we place it on the table. At least we have the humility to face ourselves with this and it's high time we do. Nuff if enough!

Thank you!

[KitchenWitch]

17. I am white and have a slight automatic preference for African Americans

:wow:

[Solon]

28. Beat ya, mines moderate!!!!

Same preference, and I'm white too!!!

[KitchenWitch]

30. That is interesting

Actually I am part Ojibwe, but I grew up in the white suburbs and I don't look Native American.

[Solon]

47. I'm Irish/Scottish/English/German ancestory mostly...

In order of percentages, roughly, I'm more than 60% Irish, I think, then down the list. If you go WAY back in my family tree, my French (Frankish?) family migrated to Ireland back in the 12th century. I'm sure I have mixtures of many other parts of Europe, and most likely Native American and maybe African as well, family has roots to the 17th century (Mayflower) in this country.

[Jamastiene]

19. That site is operated as a part of the great Southern Poverty Law Center

and its founder, Morris Dees. It is an excellent site. If you want to see more of what they do (it is very important work), check
www.splcenter.org

They are the lawyers that got the $38 million dollar law suit settled in a civil action against the KKK.

Morris Dees is a hero of mine.

[Der Blaue Engel]

21. In contrast to my previous post

I apparently have a strong automatic preference for light skin compared to dark skin. :( Guess I've got work to do.

edited to add: I meant to respond to the OP

[Spiffarino]

25. How sweet it is

Bigot money funding a test to see who's a bigot. Sweet, sweet irony.

Byron DeLaBeckwith is probably spinning in his grave pretty fast right now; let's use him to run some generators down in NO. I hear there are a lot of black folks down there without lights tonight.

:evilgrin:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

27. I've supported his efforts for years. I hoep he get involved in NO

[ourbluenation]

20. Looks like I'm tolerant!

with a slight preference towards blacks...oh, and I'm white for what it's worth

[Der Blaue Engel]

23. And what's really peculiar...

is that I've tried the Presidents one twice, and both times it was inconclusive. I would've thought that would come out with a HUGE preference for any other president than Bush. :shrug:

edited to say: Gah! I can't seem to get my shit together...I keep trying to reply to the OP and end up replying to the last post in the thread.

[Spiffarino]

22. Very strange test

I don't really know what to make of it even though I got the result I expected. It was difficult to do the switchover in the middle of it and I slowed down during the second half to keep from messing up.

Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Black and White.


Interesting, but I still hate tests. :freak:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

29. Empirically I doubt the tests are completely accurate

but i think it takes a high level of consciousness or desire to be conscious of prejudices to take the tests in the first place.

I also like the section on rhetoric although I think there are far better essays on race related rhetoric and terms people use to demean others.

Either way...I think the tests are worthwhile just to raise awareness within one's self.

[jane_pippin]

38. That's what I got too...

Same thing on the test about gay/straight bias.

I also did the presidential one, where they pit George W against Honest Abe and got a slight preference for GEORGE! I suspect it's because I'm deluged with his idiocy each day and he's so recognizable that I react faster when I see him, and negative words associated with his image.

Interesting set of tests though.

[MercutioATC]

31. It's procedurally slanted.

It initially sets a pattern that associates "white" with "good" and then asks that you change that association. I'd love to see this done the opposite way (start by associating "non-white" and "good") and see what results they get.

Why does it not surprise me that they chose to present it this way?

Sad, really.

[H2O Man]

33. Sad, really. n/t

[izzybeans]

37. I think technically it should be random as to who gets the start point.

It would be interesting to start one way, then perform the test again starting with the opposite sign direction.

[MercutioATC]

39. Agreed...or just make it start randomly each time.

This way, however, it creates its own results.

[izzybeans]

40. I used a different version of this for a research paper in college.

The protocol was to do just that. I just assumed that was the case here. That way measures of central tendency will it up the differences caused by the variable start points. And responder bias isn't then such an issue.

[MercutioATC]

49. I think it would be a great test done that way.

It's really an interesting way of measuring unconsious bias.

[Ms. Toad]

43. It is not procedurally slanted. You might want to review the FAQs

>>Because of this order effect, the orders used for IATs presented on this website are assigned at random. If you want to check whether the order made a difference for you, you can take the test again and complete it if you get assigned to the reverse order. If you do take the test twice in different orders and get different outcomes, the best estimate of your result is intermediate between the two.<<

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/racefaqs.html

[MercutioATC]

51. Yes, I see that now...

My error.

[marcus_b]

44. It is, but that is EXPLAINED IN THE FAQ.

This is the FIRST they write after the result:

"Your result, reported above, is already corrected for the order in which you took the parts of the IAT. If you have a question about the effect of order, please read the answer to FAQ 1 on the page of FAQs for this test."

And the FAQ at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/racefaqs.html

"1. I had to group White items (faces or names) together with pleasant words first. I then found it difficult when I later had to group Black items with pleasant words. Was that because I had done the task first with White items and pleasant words?

Answer: The order in which tests are administered does make a difference in magnitude of what we call 'IAT effects'. However, the difference is small and recent changes to the test have sharply reduced the influence of order. Because of this order effect, the orders used for IATs presented on this website are assigned at random. If you want to check whether the order made a difference for you, you can take the test again and complete it if you get assigned to the reverse order. If you do take the test twice in different orders and get different outcomes, the best estimate of your result is intermediate between the two. "

Note that because of the random selection of what is displayed first, the owners of the site can _monitor_ the bias produced and evaluate it quantitatively.

[MercutioATC]

50. I absolutely did not see that.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[notadmblnd]

34. I've always felt that every single person in this world is racist

but the thing that sets some of us apart... is that we can recognize it in ourselves, know that it is wrong and do something about it.

[theboss]

35. I don't like anyone

Which makes me strangely happy.

[izzybeans]

36. Hey I used this test as the basis of my undergraduate senior

thesis. It seems a few years of graduate work has done me some good. Every white person I studied, including myself were strongly associating good and competent with whites over against African-Americans. The inverse was true for the African-American subjects, except for one lady who was adopted by a white family. She was the only person in my little project that had no association. No body indicated in the survey that any of this would be true about themselves.

Though I was truly hoping to find no association at all. I'm a white guy who slightly favors African Americans over against other white people. This time anyway. I bet my scores will change if I took it again.

It's pretty revealing none the less. Implicit judgements are pretty powerful and they are always bound up with the context we find ourselves in. Perhaps a few years in Jersey away from the whitewashed midwest transformed those judgements for me.

[faithnotgreed]

41. thank you

i am on my way to that link right now

[Kindigger]

42. Awesome

:thumbsup:

[NMMNG]

45. Cool tests

I took the race IAT. My results: Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Black People and White People.

[lildreamer316]

46. And for your amusement read their hate mail.

It's hilarious.
As a pagan I have known about this site a long time.Always a good resource.

[nonconformist]

48. I did the Age and Race tests

Both times, my results were unable to be determined.

*grumble*

I wonder if I should even waste my time with the others.

[RiDuvessa]

52. I am skeptical of this test.

I took it once and got a strong bias for African Americans over European Americans. I thought that it couldn't be right, so I took it again. The second time I got a strong bias for European Americans over African Americans. I don't think that is correct either. The only difference between the two times is the order in which I was presented the subjects.

I then took the age and gender tests and had the same kind of problem.

Full Disclosure: I am female, 30-years-old and caucasian.

[Guaranteed]

53. I have a slight preference for African Americans over white people.

:)

[CarbonDate]

54. You need a test to tell you about your biases?

I'm totally aware of them. I do something about them by associating myself with different types of people.