You Must Read This Article!

Surprisingly, I've never used this title before. But for anyone who simply knows, for a fact, 100%, that they aren't biased against any particular race or group of people, you should read this. The article itslef is about 3 ¹/₂ pages, but it's worth it.

Once you're done reading, read the rest of this entry.

I know with 100% certainty that I'm biased against certain groups -- blacks being at the top of the list. I know I make negative word and image associations with blacks, as this test measures. How do I know, when I haven't taken the test? Because it's a product of the cultures I've lived in. The unfortunate fact is that a disproportional amount of blacks live in poverty, regardless of where they are located in the world. Therefore, it stands to reason that I would create negative word associations with blacks. This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that's read any of my online stuff over the past couple of years.

I think it's much more important to focus not on the scores, but on how these biases may (or may not) influence real behavior. Yes, the researcher behind this test has done some real-world applications, but the article does not provide any hard numbers on how the found biases may affect critical decisions that impact society. Just saying "siginificantly more likely" or "less likely" just isn't good enough in this case. We need more information to determine how often people with biases act on them. The resume submission study is a very good example; I too believe that personal data should not be included with a resume for exactly the same reasons that one of the quoted scientists does.

In short, tests like this are a start. But I think it's only the tip of the iceberg.

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