Implicit Bias Blog

The Harvard Implicit Bias Website https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html. Please take the Race, Age, Disability, and Asian tests. You can take any others about which you might be curious. In your blog, please discuss the test itself. Did you think it was fair, accurate, and enlightening.? Were you surprised by the results? What made you proud? Did you discover something you might want to look at in your interactions with others? Did you think you had any implicit bias? Please respond to one other person. Some guidance for responses: It can be difficult when you respond to others’ please be sensitive and understand it may be the first time we realize we have a bias towards a particular group.\

RACE TEST:

I think the test is fair, however, it is not something I will rely on for accurate information about someone’s preference of another race. I think it is a quick way of gathering data on a person based on their responses and translating that into a comprehensible phrase of someone’s preference. The results can vary based on someone’s mood or their interaction with someone from a different group. 

My result for the race test said I have a strong automatic preference for Black people over White people. I know I have an implicit bias, however, the result of this test surprised me because the result was not the implicit bias I thought I had. I find this surprising because I grew up in a country that is built on a race war. There are two predominant races in my country and they make up the black and brown population. There is always a race war between the two groups, even political decisions are made based on race. Growing up in that environment I was taught to have a prejudice against the black population. As a child, I was not interested in the world outside of where I was. So in school, I had friends that are black, and I treated them with the same respect I showed my brown friends. However, after years of being in a racist environment, I picked up learned-racism, where I learned the racist behavior from the people around me. After moving to New York, I realized that racism was not normal, even though it is normalized in my country. It took a lot of research to educate myself before I could unlearn the racism I was taught. The results of this make me question what biases I have against white people. Could the results of this test be because I am around a diverse group of people on a daily basis versus white people?

ASIAN TEST

The results of the Asian test suggested I have little to no automatic association between American and Foreign with Asian American and European American. This did not surprise me at all because I always held the belief that Americans are not considered only White. Any person born on American soil is American, including Asian Americans. The test tells me that I don’t make an automatic assumption about Asian Americans not belonging in America. I can also apply the suggestion in this test to other races as well. I did think I had an implicit bias towards Asian Americans that I was not consciously aware of. I thought so because everyone has a bias. I am proud of these results because it tells me that I don’t associate non-white people as foreigners in America, I consider them just as equal. 

DISABLED TEST

Another test that suggested no automatic preference was the disability test. I did find this surprising. I did think I have an implicit bias because I am not exposed to a lot of people with disabilities. I thought that because I am constantly around Abled Persons, so I thought I would have at least a slight or moderate preference for Abled Persons. 

AGE TEST

My results for the age test suggested a slight automatic preference for young people over old people. I find this very surprising because I tend to favor older people over younger people. Although I am constantly surrounded by people my age, I prefer the company of older folks because I find more maturity within them. I did think I have an implicit bias but not towards the group that the test results suggested. I am going to pay more attention to the interactions I have with younger people and people my age to explore to what extent the results of this test is accurate.

I think the test is fair, however, it is not something I will rely on for accurate information about someone’s preference of another race. I think it is a quick way of gathering data on a person based on their responses and translating that into a comprehensible phrase of someone’s preference. The results can vary based on someone’s mood or their interaction with someone from a different group. 

My result for the race test said I have a strong automatic preference for Black people over White people. I know I have an implicit bias, however, the result of this test surprised me because the result was not the implicit bias I thought I had. I find this surprising because I grew up in a country that is built on a race war. There are two predominant races in my country and they make up the black and brown population. There is always a race war between the two groups, even political decisions are made based on race. Growing up in that environment I was taught to have a prejudice against the black population. As a child, I was not interested in the world outside of where I was. So in school, I had friends that are black, and I treated them with the same respect I showed my brown friends. However, after years of being in a racist environment, I picked up learned-racism, where I learned the racist behavior from the people around me. After moving to New York, I realized that racism was not normal, even though it is normalized in my country. It took a lot of research to educate myself before I could unlearn the racism I was taught. The results of this make me question what biases I have against white people. Could the results of this test be because I am around a diverse group of people on a daily basis versus white people?

The results of the Asian test suggested I have little to no automatic association between American and Foreign with Asian American and European American. This did not surprise me at all because I always held the belief that Americans are not considered only White. Any person born on American soil is American, including Asian Americans. The test tells me that I don’t make an automatic assumption about Asian Americans not belonging in America. I can also apply the suggestion in this test to other races as well. I did think I had an implicit bias towards Asian Americans that I was not consciously aware of. I thought so because everyone has a bias. I am proud of these results because it tells me that I don’t associate non-white people as foreigners in America, I consider them just as equal. 

Another test that suggested no automatic preference was the disability test. I did find this surprising. I did think I have an implicit bias because I am not exposed to a lot of people with disabilities. I thought that because I am constantly around Abled Persons, so I thought I would have at least a slight or moderate preference for Abled Persons. 

My results for the age test suggested a slight automatic preference for young people over old people. I find this very surprising because I tend to favor older people over younger people. Although I am constantly surrounded by people my age, I prefer the company of older folks because I find more maturity within them. I did think I have an implicit bias but not towards the group that the test results suggested. I am going to pay more attention to the interactions I have with younger people and people my age to explore to what extent the results of this test is accurate.

Response

The Implicit Association Test is a pretty straightforward test. The test does not take much time to complete. I took the Race, Disability, Age, and Asian Tests. In all the tests, basic questions were asked, questions like age, sex, gender identity, religious affiliation, country of residence, political identity, and a few more. In all the tests, picture/image identification was used. My results in each test kind of surprised me, it was not the results I expected. I will say the results were not totally accurate. For the RACE test, the result stated that I have a strong automatic preference for African Americans over European Americans. I grew up in a predominantly black country and I lived in this community for years before moving to the States where I got to meet people of other races and ethnicity. Aside from school, restaurants, and public places, I am mainly surrounded by people of my race/ethnicity. And most of the people that I often interact with are people of my race/ ethnicity. I have acquaintances from various ethnicities but most of my friends/ close friends are either African/Black. So I can somewhat agree with the result of the test; I kind of have an automatic preference for African Americans.

For the AGE test, the result stated that I have a slightly automatic preference for old people over young people. Hmm, that got me thinking because I didn’t know how to feel about that result. I surely love helping old people when I can and when they make small conversations with me, I try my best to very nice. But I’m not sure if I prefer them to young people. Most of my company are people within my age range and I love hanging out with them rather than old people. So, I find this result inaccurate. For the ASIAN test, the result stated that I have a slightly automatic association for American with Asian American and Foreign with European American. As an immigrant myself, I certainly don’t believe that being American is based on your race/ethnicity. I am not sure about the accuracy of this result but I don’t think I have any preferences. For the DISABILITY test, the result stated that I have no automatic preference between a disabled person and an abled person. I agree with this result because I know it’s true. I do not treat abled or disabled people differently. I’m proud of this result, it’s accurate. The results were also insightful, with these results I will like to pay more attention to my interaction with people of different race/ethnicity. In conclusion, the results of this test were somewhat accurate but not entirely accurate.

I agree that the test was fairly simple and easy to complete. I had a similar result with the RACE test as well. Maybe our exposure to a certain group of people over the other groups shaped our preferences. It makes me wonder what our reaction would be around a large group of white individuals. I 100% agree with you that being American is not based on ethnicity. For reasons unknown, it seems as though America is painted as a white country, although, there are many different races and ethnicities present.