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Assignment 8 - Project Implicit

Alison F. Hogue

Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University

PSYC 332 - Personality

Dr. Phillip S. Krasula

November 10, 2022

Implicit Bias

The IAT was made to help others understand possible biases within themselves. This test aims to

help detect if a person has these implicit biases within themselves. I have done this test before, however I

think that depending upon which device this is done on can affect the accuracy of the test and the speed in

which people will respond to this. The two tests that I have done this time are on age bias (young/old) and

racial bias (white/black). Overall I think that this is a quick way to see if people have these biases within

their lives. In my review, I will also be comparing this to some related studies that show connections to

implicit bias as well.

Some areas that I think that this test did well in, is giving the person who is using this test enough

time to get used to which side either the words or images are put. I think that this would be crucial to get a

more accurate idea of a person's implicit biases because without the practice rounds the results would not

be as accurate. I think that people would first need to get used to the order that the words and images are

being put before being evaluated on the test. I also think that while accuracy is a good form of

measurement, the speed in which a person responds to the question is also vital to the accuracy of this

test. I think that if a person takes longer to think about the side that the words or images are put will

influence the accuracy of the quiz because people are then thinking about the response, rather than their

immediate reaction.

Since there is room for error within this test, within more ways than simply the response time, I

think that this test is not entirely accurate. Because of this, I think that this test does have areas that cannot

be entirely held to be true, but there is still a level of accuracy within these tests. I am also taking a

cognitive psychology class right now and the professor in the class has talked slightly about implicit bias

and how we are able to see it within the brain. Another way that I am able to believe that this test can lead

to accurate results is by an experiment, done by Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996, testing how our bias

towards old people affects our behavior. In this study no one was told the accurate reason for this test to

avoid having prior knowledge about what to look for. They were given reading material and read off

(believing to be) random words. The controlled group did have these random words, which had not
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believed biased associations to old people, however the experimental group had words that had negative

associations to old people (much like the IAT). This was done to see if by priming people unconsciously

people would behave differently by this unconscious priming. To test the results of priming, the

researchers timed how long it took for the subjects to walk to the elevator. They found that the subjects

that were primed with the negatively associated words to old people walked slower (Banfield, et al.,

2003).

While this is only one study done on this topic, there are many others. The idea of where our

biases come from are in multiple areas, but the way that IAT and the study above both can show that these

negative words can be found to be associated with a specific group of people, thus forming our biases.

These biases can be seen through the categories that we have, which can be activated unconsciously, but

can form attachments with curtain groups of people. This is why I think that the test can be viewed as

having proper and semi-accurate results. I think that this test can show how our biases are within

ourselves by the speed that we take the test and how accurately we match the assistive words to the

images. For example within both of the IAT assessments that I did, within the racial bias words like ‘ugly’

and ‘beautiful’, while within the age bias IAT assessment words like ‘selfish’ and ‘attractive’ are used.

Much like within the study that I compared above, these words have negative associations to the groups

that are being tested upon, giving IAT’s more accurate responses to the tests.

Even with the possible flaws that this test may have, I think that this can be of benefit for those

who take it. For those who do not believe that implicit biases are instilled in them, this can be a great way

to accurately represent how these can be formed in our memory and how we can unconsciously form

these opinions. I think it can offer a perspective of how we formulate these biases and can make people

become more aware of these negative words and the associations that we may make with them.
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Work Cited

Banfield, Jane & Pendry, Louise & Mewse, Avril & Edwards, Martin. (2003). The Effects of an Elderly

Stereotype Prime on Reaching and Grasping Actions. Social Cognition - SOC COGNITION. 21.

299-319. 10.1521/soco.21.4.299.27002.