{"id":63358,"date":"2022-03-30T06:47:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T10:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=63358"},"modified":"2022-04-06T12:44:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T16:44:24","slug":"implicit-association-test-psychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/","title":{"rendered":"Implicit Association Test: The Psychology of Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/subconscious-bias-harvard-unconscious-bias-test\/\">Implicit Association Test<\/a> (IAT)? How does the IAT measure bias?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In psychology, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) is an assessment designed to gauge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mental-representation\/\">mental representations<\/a> that are outside conscious control. It is supposed to measure unconscious bias by measuring how fast a person can assign descriptors to certain categories (e.g. race or gender).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn about the Implicit Association Test, how it works, and what it&#8217;s supposed to measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-implicit-association-test\"><strong>The Implicit Association Test<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In psychology, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a tool that attempts to measure the unconscious associations that people have with certain categories, for example, gender or race. The creators of the IAT argue that it can uncover your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-racial-bias\/\">implicit racial bias<\/a> through the measurement of your reaction time. Are you faster to react when pairing positive words, such as \u201cwonderful,\u201d with white faces or black faces? How about negative words such as \u201cevil\u201d? (You can find the IAT online at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.implicit.harvard.edu\">www.implicit.harvard.edu<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in trying it.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regardless of their stated beliefs, <strong>more than 80% of IAT-takers have \u201cpro-white associations.\u201d<\/strong> In other words, it takes slightly longer for most people to put words like \u201cglorious\u201d and \u201cwonderful\u201d in the \u201cAfrican American\u201d category than to put words like \u201churt\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d in the same category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This doesn\u2019t just apply to test-takers who aren\u2019t African American\u2014<strong>50% of more than 50,000 African Americans tested have pro-white associations.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unconscious racial and gender attitudes still matter, regardless of the conscious attitudes we articulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-controversies-over-the-iat\"><strong>Controversies Over the IAT<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s a great deal of controversy surrounding the IAT. According to journalist Jesse Singal, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecut.com\/2017\/01\/psychologys-racism-measuring-tool-isnt-up-to-the-job.html\">synthesized a range of views on the IAT for <em>The Cut<\/em><\/a>, there are problems with reliability (including low \u201ctest-retest\u201d reliability, in which people taking the same test on two different occasions are likely to get different results) and validity (a score on the IAT isn\u2019t necessarily predictive of someone\u2019s behavior toward people of a certain race). There are also questions about whether the IAT oversimplifies causal links. For example, people may receive higher implicit bias scores for reasons unrelated to bias: for example, if they\u2019re very familiar with stereotypes, if they\u2019re thinking about oppression and discrimination, or even if their cognitive processing is slow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following this research, the test creators walked back their original claims about what exactly the test measures. They now say that the data isn\u2019t predictive of individual behavior and is only predictive in aggregate\u2014for example, if the same person does the test many times and averages the results, or when measuring a particular group\u2019s overall patterns of bias.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the Implicit Association Test (IAT)? How does the IAT measure bias? In psychology, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) is an assessment designed to gauge mental representations that are outside conscious control. It is supposed to measure unconscious bias by measuring how fast a person can assign descriptors to certain categories (e.g. race or gender). Learn about the Implicit Association Test, how it works, and what it&#8217;s supposed to measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,160],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-63358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-science","tag-blink","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Implicit Association Test: The Psychology of Bias - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In psychology, the Implicit Association Test is a tool that attempts to measure unconscious mental associations. Here&#039;s how it works.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Implicit Association Test: The Psychology of Bias\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In psychology, the Implicit Association Test is a tool that attempts to measure unconscious mental associations. Here&#039;s how it works.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-30T10:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-06T16:44:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/difference-exclusion-racism-stigma.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Implicit Association Test: The Psychology of Bias\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-30T10:47:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-06T16:44:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/\"},\"wordCount\":448,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/difference-exclusion-racism-stigma.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Blink\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/\",\"name\":\"Implicit Association Test: The Psychology of Bias - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/implicit-association-test-psychology\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/difference-exclusion-racism-stigma.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-30T10:47:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-06T16:44:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"In psychology, the Implicit Association Test is a tool that attempts to measure unconscious mental associations. 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