Interesting internet tests(yes, seriously)

Link.

"Your data suggest a slight association of Male with CAREER and Female with FAMILY compared to Female with CAREER and Male with FAMILY."

Yeah, pretty much as I predicted. I get that's it's kinda-sorta wrong, by I just can't bring myself to care all that much.

"Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between European American and African American."

Was hoping I would. Wasn't 100% sure, though.



Come on, be honest.

What a crock of sh1t!

Implicit Association Test = a contrived sorting routine with four categories and only two options (E or I key) per "test" run.

Sort 1 - Good or Bad WORDS
Sort 2 - Black or White FACES

Words with negative meanings or words with positive meanings are sorted. Then, photos of faces that are clearly Caucasian or African are sorted. Finally, the category labels are combined (Good + Black / Bad + White or vice versa), and then the individual words or faces are displayed again to be sorted. And the result? Utter nonsense presented as a predictor of racial preference.

"Although UnderstandingPrejudice.org is organized to supplement Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination (a university-level anthology published by McGraw-Hill), all pages and features of the site are freely available to teachers, students, and other visitors regardless of whether they purchase the McGraw-Hill anthology."

Why, how considerate of McGraw-Hill!!

And, since the "test" is so contrived as to predict some degree of bias towards one's own race, clearly we need to purchase the anthology!

No, I didn't conduct a double-blind randomized study, but I did ask others to take the test... Guess what? The whites "moderately preferred" other whites, and the blacks "moderately preferred" other blacks.

My findings:

1. People in my office can use the E & I keys on their PCs.
2. People in my office can sort words and pictures.
3. Even computer people can tell black from white, and good from bad.
4. This test is a crock of sh1t.

#4 is the "best fit" for my particular results.

No, I'm not taking the bit dog stance (as in "The Bit Dog Barks the Loudest"). If the objective of this test is to measure innate racial preferences, it truly is a waste. Hundreds of studies using more valid procedures say that most people display a preference for the group(s) they identify with - like matches like...

On DXP, we tend to agree that Signs have certain tendencies in common that are not seen to the same degree and/or combination in other Signs. Are we Sign Bigots, or merely acknowledging a reality?

My concern is that web sites like this one, and tests like these, are not always part of the solution. They may be part of the problem. Yes, there is bigotry and racial hatred in this world, and we would all be better off if it could be vanquished. However, the cynical side of this Virgo also knows that there is a fairly large industry built on exposing hate groups, bigotry, and the like -- even some institutionalized anti-bigotry outfits that would lose a lot of $ $ $ $ $ if race relations in the USA improved dramatically...

It's analogous to the March Of Dimes organization, which was founded "to raise money for polio research and to care for those suffering from the disease."

What happened after Jonas Salk & colleagues developed a polio vaccine?? Did all those paid MOD employees find jobs elsewhere? Of course not! Organizations acquire a life of their own, and like any other living thing, they develop a survival instinct, too...

"After supporting the development of two successful vaccines against polio (both Jonas Salk's and Albert Sabin's research were partly funded by the March of Dimes), the organization, rather than going out of business, decided in 1958 to use its charitable infrastructure [ie, paid professional staff] to serve mothers and babies with a new mission: to prevent premature birth, birth defects and infant mortality. The organization accomplishes this with programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_Dimes]

Now the focus of the MOD is more general, and the organization can continue to help (and raise funds!) well into the foreseeable future... no guarantee of immortality, but at least it has postponed death for a while!

Just imagine: Everyone in the world wakes up tomorrow morning and is 100% color blind to racial differences. No more bigotry! Hurrah!! Oh, happy day!!

What happens to the SPLC, the NAACP, the UNCF, and other such organizations? What happens to their fund-raising ability? Could they retool, and find other causes that would draw support? Would they??

:: Rant Officially Over ::

Ah, Roxi, dear!

It was a Virgic Statement of Fact. As always!

lol@roxi


Psych is his thing, Rox. That's what he does (I think). Hence, the passionate response.

SS: "Hence, the passionate response."

Passionate response? From a Virgo Male? What weed are you smoking??

Oh! Wait! Virgo Male married to a Scorpio Female... yeah, there just might be a passionate response!

(See what SHE does to me!)

But seriously: As a Son Of The South, I grow tired of mamby-pamby liberal do-gooders trying to correct my Neanderthal racial relations...

Sh1t!! My first Serious Lover was a Black Taurus Female! I wasn't attracted to her because she was black. I was attracted to her because she was Smart & Sexy as Hell! If it had worked out between us, there never would've been a LibraEX, or a ScorpWife...

(Uh... maybe it's best that it didn't work out??)

S-I-L,

How Scorpic of you! Taking such a negative view of the Human Race...

While Virgos are great at sorting, we have little to no interest in using the results to put us ahead of others - regardless of the particular categories involved.

In fact, since I've settled down in the country with my ScorpWife & ScorpTwins, I'm becoming more like the rube in the Charlie Daniels song...

People say I'm no good
I'm crazy as a loon
'cause I get stoned in the morning,
I get drunk in the afternoon.
Kinda like my old blue tick hound
I like to lay around in the shade.
And I ain't got no money
but I damn sure got it made.
'Cause I ain't askin' nobody for nothin'
if I can't get it on my own.
If you don't like the way I'm livin'
You just leave this long haired country boy alone.

But about the Test... Did you take it? If so, how prejudiced are you?? (It's okay, you can tell us on this anonymous forum!)

i got the same answers as yum.

wheels: "i got the same answers as yum."

That obviously invalidates the test. Thank you for your participation.

"However, even if we could manage to get past our racial pretentiousness, we would simply replace it with other ways of falsely inflating our own sense of self-worth by re-categorizing ourselves based on:

Gender

Other physical attributes (and so on...)"


i completely agree. 's how the brain is wired. BUT - that's not to say that it can't be overcome by those who are willing.

why do you say that my results completely invalidate the test? i'm assuming it was meant in a half-joking way, but i'd still like to know the reasoning.

"Why, how considerate of McGraw-Hill!!

And, since the "test" is so contrived as to predict some degree of bias towards one's own race, clearly we need to purchase the anthology!"

It's Harvard's, actually.

"No, I'm not taking the bit dog stance (as in "The Bit Dog Barks the Loudest"). If the objective of this test is to measure innate racial preferences, it truly is a waste. Hundreds of studies using more valid procedures say that most people display a preference for the group(s) they identify with - like matches like..."

I don't know about about that, D, measuring the subconscious seems rather difficult.



Anyways, sixteen posts to two test results is a really bad ratio. Why don't you post your results along with rating your agreement with them?(not just D, people in general). It may not be perfect, but it does make you think, if nothing else.

wheels: "why do you say that my results completely invalidate the test? i'm assuming it was meant in a half-joking way, but i'd still like to know the reasoning."

Reason? I don't need no stinking reason! (Don't need no stinking badges, either!)

S-I-L: "Most of our rational thought begins with prejudice and predilections."

Yes, and not all stereotypes are wrong or harmful.

Not all snakes are poisonous; however, lots of folks will react negatively - even violently! - upon encountering a snake. Reason should kick in, and guide the person to assess whether the snake is really dangerous before they chop its head off with a shovel, but that tends to be the exception rather than the rule...

Our assumptions and reactions are also situational.

If I come upon a group of teenage boys standing on the street corner in my very small town during broad daylight, my quick assessment of and reaction to them is going to be vastly different from that same group of boys standing on the street corner in a big city late at night. Stereotyping? Sure! Is it wrong? Maybe. But... I'd rather be wrong in a particular instance than mugged, beat-up, robbed, and/or killed for not trusting my innate tendencies...

S-I-L: "...wouldn't it make more sense to address our suspicions, research "snakes," and validate or dismiss our irrational behaviors?"

Yes, it would make more sense, and it would be the reasonable approach. Unfortunately, our reason resides in the upper layers of our brains, and there's a lot of older and more primitive strata between it and our hands & legs! Fight or flight kicks in often before higher-order logic can prevail...

There's some current research that shows people can make very quick assessments (taking less than one second) upon seeing a guy (or a picture of a guy) and correctly assign his gender preference (heterosexual or homosexual) 70% of the time -- and not all of the gay guys were wearing lipstick and a tiara...

When we have to make quick decisions, we fall back on our stereotypes and common sense. It's not necessarily wrong to do this; however, having an awareness that we do this, and not making an effort to think beyond these biases when we have the time, is wrong -- IMHO...

S-I-L: "Oh I love it! Please show this part to your Scorpio."

I persuaded her to read the thread, and her only reaction, "Sweetheart, you don't have to explain EVERYTHING do you??"

(She's a lost cause, but I keep on tryin')