Imagine you are sitting at your computer staring at a black screen with colored words flashing in front of your eyes. The program demands that you press the letter "i" for right and "e" for left. Every time that you get something wrong a little red "x" pops up mocking your failure. However, when the green "failure" shows up, you're supposed to press either "i" or "e". Now, tell me that your head would not be spinning when you conclude this dreadful IAT session.
This was BY FAR the worst internet quiz and/or test that I have taken. Namely, because it messes with your brain in the most absurd ways. The program is designed to be "low-error." Whoever wrote the software was attempting to lessen favoritism by testing each category twice and switching the sides of "good" and "bad". To better understand how this testing works you can subject yourself to the closest thing to brainwashing that you can get to without actually being brainwashed by the following link; click at your own risk: http://www.understandingprejudice.org/demos/, https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/featuredtask.html. Enough ranting.
These IATs tend to give results based upon first-instinct reaction which is generally imposed on an individual during their childhood. For instance, I probably received a result of being inclined to Christianity because I was raised in a Christian environment and have become more familiar with Christainity over Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam. These results could also just be pure rubbish.
The first activity, http://www.pbs.org/race/002_SortingPeople/002_00-htm, asks to sort images into various races. When I performed this task, I failed miserably. I think this is because the people that were pictured in this activity were not what I think of when I picture the various races. The people in this activity seemed to have uncommon or mixed ethnicity that made a great point on how races are so diverse and arbitrarily constructed.
If I were testing gender, race, or religious preference I would test based upon reactions to certain circumstances. I would also use more "user-friendly" programs that would make it easier for the user to focus on the task at hand and not the difficulty surrounding the operations of the task.
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I agree with the "pure rubbish" observation. See, you were raised in a Christian environment, so your results have logic behind them. But I wasn't raised with any religious background, so what do my results mean? What are they based on? I'm sticking with the belief that it's rubbish. I also agree with the brain torture these tests inflicted upon us.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. Although I was very shocked at how the results made sense considering my childhood. I would also like to know specifically how the results were reached.
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