Eth125 Week 2 Individual Assignment Implicit Association

I

ETH/125

Implicit Association Test

My test results said that I have a strong automatic preference for European American compared to African American. I do not believe the results are completely valid in my case. I am not a prejudice or judgmental person and do not prefer European Americans over African Americans. I believe everyone is equal no matter what color his or her skin is. Everyone I meet starts on the same page no matter what their race is. Some of these things may be accurate on a level that I am not even aware. On the last part of the test I was shocked at how many times I had clicked an incorrect button. Even though I do not believe that this was an accurate test to my beliefs, it gave me a bit of a shock. Enough so that I am completely willing to look at some of those things in my life that may have caused me to have the result I did.

I believe that it is hard to accurately measure prejudice. I do not see how being able to hit the right key when I see and African Americans’ face and a European Americans’ face can tell someone that I prefer whites over blacks. That was the first time I have taken a test like that and it shocked me when I seen the results. I do not believe you can use a silly little test like the one I took to decide if someone is prejudice or not.

Sociologist use surveys and test like the one I took to calculate prejudice. The IAT test is the main one use today to calculate this. Maybe a more in-depth survey with a lot of questions could calculate prejudice better. Sociologists have to ask the right questions to make sure the control group does not lie though. With numerous repetitive questions this may be achievable and a Sociologist could calculate prejudice more accurately.

Having said all of this, I do believe that everyone has a certain amount of prejudice that we may not even be aware of. There is no way I can make a blanket statement that I have no prejudices, because I believe that I have many.