Appetite From Hell

Originally written for a social psychology paper on the validity of the Implicit Association Test in Spring of 2022

As time has gone on, we have been exposed to more groups of people with different beliefs and backgrounds. A diverse, integrated, and more accepting society seems to be on the horizon, however, racial tensions and other social issues that have been swept under the rug for too long are now being brought to light. While racism and prejudice are less of a blatant problem than they used to be, we can’t deny that they are still alive in our society, from hate crimes to differences in how other races are treated in healthcare situations. As humans, it is normal to be comfortable around familiar people, places, and ideas, but when something is outside of our comfort zone, it challenges us. Many of us did not grow up learning to dislike other humans, however, an argument could certainly be made for how the environment we grew up in impacts our comfort around others. Prejudice can be defined as “a hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinguishable group based solely on their membership in that group; it contains cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components” (Aronson, et al., 2019). While we do our best to treat others equally, our hidden prejudices do lead us to find comfort in certain social situations versus others and can be demonstrated through experimentation and testing.

Implicit prejudice or bias could be defined as “a hidden force inside people that makes them perform inappropriate actions” (De Houwer, 2019). The Implicit Association Test, or IAT, is a test that works with the implicit bias concept, and measures how quickly we make positive or negative associations with target groups to measure how biased we truly are. The group in question could be anything from a race of people to an idea or religion. The IAT is more specifically defined as “a test thought to measure unconscious (implicit) prejudices according to the speed with which people can pair a target face (e.g., black or white, old or young, Asian or white) with a positive or negative association (e.g., the words honest or evil)” (Aronson et al., 2019). Performed at a computer, the test gives an individual options, or positive and negative associations, with different combinations of words, and the test-taker will respond by pressing one of two buttons through multiple rounds. The idea behind the results is the more quickly, or automatically, we correctly match and answer the questions, the more positive the association is. Preferring one group over another are where the biases are defined, and the further automation of the answers further demonstrate the strength of those associations (De Houwer et al., 2009).

When recently asked to take an Implicit Association Test, the test was approached with a clear head, not having begun prior work on the subject in question. The IAT chosen was one about Religion and our ability to see other religions. The initial question set gave an idea of how the test would work; however, my results were not what I was expecting. For the test, I was asked to compare Christianity, Judaism, and Islam with certain word sets and responding appropriately. As somebody who answered as honestly as possible, and has always tried to approach others with equality, my results demonstrated how the environment we grow up in can lead us to be more comfortable around certain groups of people without realizing it. I am not a practicing Christian, very much rejecting the belief system, however the finding was that I had a moderate/automatic preference for Christianity over other religions. This could be credited to growing up in a religious family with one side being Christian-Methodist, and the other side being Roman Catholic. While I would not label myself as a Christian, those are the ideas around which I was most comfortable during the test. After some reflecting, I believe the results were such because those are the beliefs I had been most familiar with throughout life. While the results were not necessarily desirable, they were certainly eye-opening. While the results were not good or bad, they just mean I may need better understanding and background information about other religions before being comfortable enough to discuss religious topics or make any kind of judgement.

Having positive or negative associations to certain categories do not always mean we choose to feel that way toward the subject. Most of us use implicit biases as a way for us to better interpret our surroundings. If our brains are functioning and taking in information appropriately, it is perfectly normal to notice patterns in the people and places around us, generalizing for faster decision-making (Payne, 2018). Our brain’s efficiency lets us make smarter decisions; however, it becomes a more biased decision in the process. Acknowledging that we create our own biases to further interpret the world is a useful asset. Combining this knowledge with potential test results about which biases we truly hold deep down could potentially lead to a societal change, one person at a time. An important fact to remember about the Implicit Association Test is that we are not trying to predict an individual’s potential behavior, but rather how groups will respond on average in comparison. For example, one could not accurately use the IAT to predict the outcome for a specific social situation between two people because of the potential non-automatic factors involved such as our personal feelings toward the individual in question. Some argue that the IAT is not an accurate way to predict an individual’s prejudices, but rather a way to observe how groups will respond on average in larger entities such as communities, cities, or states (Payne, 2018).

While the IAT is not absolute in its results, it has great potential to teach us a lot about ourselves and the world around us. As mentioned earlier, just because we have an implicit prejudice or bias does not necessarily mean we feel that way. However, being aware of the bias can help us shape a better future by awareness of our actions in relation to others. While we may not agree with the prejudice, it is still there as a part of how our brain compartmentalizes information for survival. The Implicit Association Test has potential to be accurate once we accept that we are not as nice as we think that we are. Biases may be present as a way for us to organize information about the outside world, however, this knowledge could best be used to figure out how to further and between integrate people.

References

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Sommers, S. R. (2019). Social psychology. Pearson.

Ashton-James, C. E., Tybur, J. M., Grießer, V., & Costa, D. (2019). Stereotypes about surgeon warmth and competence: The role of surgeon gender. PLOS ONE, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211890

Chevance, G., Héraud, N., Guerrieri, A., Rebar, A., & Boiché, J. (2017). Measuring implicit attitudes toward physical activity and sedentary behaviors: Test-retest reliability of three scoring algorithms of the implicit association test and Single Category-Implicit Association test. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 31, 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.04.007

De Houwer, J. (2019). Implicit bias is behavior: A functional-cognitive perspective on implicit bias. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(5), 835–840. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619855638

De Houwer, J., Teige-Mocigemba, S., Spruyt, A., & Moors, A. (2009). Implicit measures: A normative analysis and review. Psychological Bulletin, 135(3), 347–368. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014211

Maina, I. W., Belton, T. D., Ginzberg, S., Singh, A., & Johnson, T. J. (2018). A decade of studying implicit racial/ethnic bias in healthcare providers using the Implicit Association Test. Social Science & Medicine, 199, 219–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.009

Payne, K. (2018, March 27). How to think about ‘implicit bias’. Scientific American. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-think-about-implicit-bias/