The Implicit Association Test, developed by Tony Greenwald, is the focus of this story produced as part of “Facing Race,” a KING 5 series that examines racism, social justice and racial inequality in the Pacific Northwest.
Implicit bias: Online test captures our hidden attitudes on race
Three community members took a test that has garnered attention around the world, and shared their results about implicit bias.
Author: Natalie Swaby
Published: 7:38 PM PDT September 20, 2020
SEATTLE — More than two decades ago, Tony Greenwald and his colleagues debuted an online Implicit Association Test, also known as the IAT. The award-winning test has been taken more than 25 million times since 1998.
Greenwald, a University of Washington psychology professor emeritus, explains that the test uses pictures of light and dark skin people along with words to help measure implicit bias.
FACING RACEImplicit bias: Online test captures our hidden attitudes on raceThree community members took a test that has garnered attention around the world, and shared their results about implicit bias. Volume 90% This ad will end in 25 Author: Natalie SwabyPublished: 7:38 PM PDT September 20, 2020Updated: 7:38 PM PDT September 20, 2020
SEATTLE — More than two decades ago, Tony Greenwald and his colleagues debuted an online Implicit Association Test, also known as the IAT. The award-winning test has been taken more than 25 million times since 1998.
Greenwald, a University of Washington psychology professor emeritus, explains that the test uses pictures of light and dark skin people along with words to help measure implicit bias.
“Implicit biases are now defined fairly simply as attitudes, meaning likes and dislikes, and stereotypes, meaning associations of traits with groups of people that operate automatically outside of our awareness and are capable of producing unintended discrimination,” said Greenwald.
When asked why implicit biases exist, Greenwald said, “it is because our culture has been filled with racial stereotypes. It's in literature, it's in history, it's in entertainment, media.”
“What we need to do is arrange for prevention of those implicit biases from having impact that causes what the lawyers call disparate treatment, or more simply, discrimination,” Greenwald continued.
The background of the test involves a lot of scientific and technical work that involved cognitive psychology in an area of research called social cognition.
"The main question people want to know… if I get a result that is reported as I have automatic preference for racial white relative to racial black, does that mean I'm racist? That is actually I think the main question people want to know about, and the answer to that question is no. It does not mean that you are racist,” said Greenwald.
KING 5 asked three community members to take the test. Read the entire article or listen here.