The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures one's unconscious thoughts and feelings about different groups. Because the instrument encourages quick responses, reaction times are indicative of unconscious or implicit beliefs. For example, if one's reaction time is faster when pairing "good" terms and lighter faces than when pairing "good" terms with darker faces, this suggests an unconscious belief that people with lighter skin are "good" and people with darker skin are "bad".
The first test that I took was the Gay People - Straight People IAT. My results indicate "little to no automatic preference between Straight People and Gay People." A problem that I had with this test was that some of the pictures they showed expressed cultural norms and beliefs that are different from my own beliefs. For example, the test showed a picture of people getting married; when one person was in a dress and one person was in a tuxedo, that image fit my personal beliefs about gay marriage. When I get married, I sure as hell will be wearing a tuxedo. I think that societal norms indicate that when two people of the same gender get married, they wear the same type of clothing. Because this is inconsistent with my personal beliefs and knowledge, I had difficultly categorizing some of the images.
This result of this IAT was actually surprising. Being a queermo, I thought that I would display a preference for Gay People. However, the more than I think about it, I realize that I do not often consider or acknowledge Straight People. I think that maybe I just see Straight People as people, but I am more likely to recognize Gay People. For this reason, I believe that this specific IAT shows my true attitudes about sexuality.
I also took the Religion IAT. I think that I had a lot of errors on this test because I had difficultly separating the different religious identifiers (synagogue, torah, Koran, krishna, karma, etc). Even though I did not have a lot of early exposure to Christianity, and I am not very religious now, I still was better able to recognize the Christian identifiers. I believe that this is due to socialization and cultural learning. Because Christianity is the dominant religion in America, we are better able to recognize the symbols that correspond to Christianity. Thus, I believe the validity of this test should be questioned. I believe that this test measures knowledge of and familiarity with certain religions and their symbols rather than implicit attitudes. When I saw "krishna," I first had to remember that it is an identifier of Hinduism and then categorize it, whereas there was an automatic association between Bible and Christianity, which reduced my reaction time.
For example, I was surprised to find that my results indicate "more positive attitudes toward Christianity", while Judaism, Hinduism, Islam all fell in the middle of positive and negative attitudes. I often find that I am actually slightly prejudiced against Christianity and those who practice it. Because when I came out as gay, the Bible and the "word of God" were used as excused for discrimination, I still hold negative feelings toward Christians. I am not outwardly prejudiced, but I definitely am more cautious around Christians that I do not know, and I definitely stereotype Christians as being discriminating, close-minded bigots. For these reasons, I believe that this particular IAT test measures familiarity with certain religions more than implicit attitudes toward them.
Clearly, taking this test forced me to acknowledge my prejudice and stereotyping of Christians but this has been something that I have been working on and negotiating with for some time now. I think I will definitely weight the results of the test as a possible indicator of progress in my attempts to reduce prejudice against Christianity.
This was really interesting! I agree that the tests more accurately measure familiarity, but I think this is under the assumption that people have more positive affiliations for things with which they are familiar. However, I understand your viewpoint on Christianity, as I have a similar opinion myself, and how you would expect to see a negative bias towards it even though it is the religion with which you are most culturally familiar. I guess the IAT was sneaky and defied all expectations!
ReplyDelete