Everyone Has Unconscious Bias
What happened when I took an Implicit Associations Test
When I took the Implicit Associations Test (IAT) designed by researchers at Harvard University today, I wasn’t particularly surprised by the results, although they did not come out how I would prefer to think of myself. I only took two tests, one for racial preference and one for associations by gender. They also offer tests that reflect implicit associations related to age, weight, disability, sexuality, and other topics. I may go back to the website at some point and take those as well.
My results for the gender associations test showed a strong automatic association of males with career and with females for family, despite the fact that I am a staunch supporter of female empowerment and opportunity. This didn’t particularly surprise me, however, because I’m 56 years old and grew up in a very traditional family where even though my mother worked part time some of my childhood, my dad was clearly the breadwinner and she was clearly the primary manager of the childrearing and homemaking aspects. My conscious beliefs that I speak and write about now are only a part of the picture. What’s deep in my less conscious places reflect my upbringing and the strong gender binaries of the society that I was raised in.
When I took the racial preference test, I showed a strong automatic preference…
