My results from the race implicit association test (IAT) suggested that I have moderate automatic preference for white people over black people. This came as a surprise to me. Given that I have always considered myself a strong liberal and have consistently placed equality as a top priority, the test definitely changed my perspective on how people think automatically. Compared to other people 's results, they most likely had the same realization I had. Many explicit attitudes did not correlate to the study of implicit attitudes. Stated in the results, over 50% of people reported having no difference in attitudes towards white people compared to black people; however, only 18% received such results. Strikingly, 68% received results having implicit attitude preferences toward white people over black people.
I believe a majority of this can be explained by the social learning theory. This theory claims that “children learn attitudes and discriminatory behavior from their parents, teachers, family, friends, and others when they are rewarded for such behavior,” (Cottam 216). As described in class, a majority of our
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At the end of the test there is a disclaimer stating “The results are not a definitive assessment of your implicit preference. The results may be influenced by variables related to the test (e.g., the category labels or particular items used to represent the categories on the IAT) or the person (e.g., how tired you are). The results are provided for educational purposes only,” (IAT TEST). The lack of a consistent variable could significantly alter the data recorded. It is claimed that the order a person takes the test has a small effect; however, the test would be more accurate if each individual took it in the same order. Lastly, the person’s state of mind could vastly affect the outcome of the results. With that being said, the results should be used as a rough gauge rather than definitive