ProcrastiBlog

Over the last few days, I've established that I don't have an accent, that I love terrorists, and (via Malcolm "Blink" Gladwell) that I'm slightly racist (but less so than the average person).

I suggest taking this last quiz, because it's interesting to think about what, if anything, it really says about your unconscious attitudes. Go here, click "I wish to proceed," and choose a test. I chose "Race IAT."

Comments below are SPOILERS. Don't read unless you've taken the test or aren't going to.

I'm not entirely convinced the test uncovers hidden racial assumptions---it may be a bit of a parlor trick. I'm not sure if the test always proceeds in the same order, but when I took it it went in four phases: first I was asked to "sort" black from white faces into left and right categories; then "good" and "bad" words; then, the categories became "white OR good" and "black OR bad"; then, "black OR good" and "white OR bad". In each case where I made a mistake, I believe it was that I tried to assign a "good" word to the "white OR bad" category. This is supposed to be telling, that I was having trouble associating "good" with "black." But I'm not sure I wasn't just having difficulty adapting my hand-eye coordination to the new category scheme. I made a few mistakes at the beginning and fewer as I went on.

Anybody else who took it want to weigh in?