Are You Biased?

This site has tests you can take to determine whether you are biased a baker’s dozen different ways. Go try some.

All I have to do is look at the page to discover that I have an embarrassing bias … against tests like these.

Say What? (9)

  1. Nels Nelson February 28, 2004 at 12:01 am | | Reply

    I tried to give one of these (Religious Bias: Anti-Semitism) a fair shot, but it just kept going on and on and on without conclusion. I got the impression the test wasn’t ever going to end until, befuddled and dizzy with fatigue, I accidentally associated the words “nasty” and “failure” with Judaism.

  2. Chetly Zarko February 28, 2004 at 12:11 am | | Reply

    John, I must be “qualified” to work for a “Civil Rights Initiative” given this result. And just when I thought I might be “deceiving people” about my own beliefs. I’ve passed the “left’s test”.

    A real danger though will be if these tests eventually become something one must pass. Orwell?

    Here’s a clipping from tolerance.org’s page after I took the test. Trust me, this test is TEDIOUS (and I took it once, and won’t take others)and can’t easily be “faked” because its a “speed based, image flashing” based thing. I question how “scientific” it is though; since “perceptual set” problems can arise with the order of presentation (THEY START with Other religions v. Judaism and then group “other religions and good words” with Judaism and “bad words” and you have to sort them; then they reverse the order and hope to catch you in more mistakes on the reverse; after they’ve already given you what is called a “perceptual set” bias).

    —-FROM tolerance.org

    Your data suggest little or no automatic preference

    The score above has already been corrected for the order in which you performed the task. If your score was ‘Inconclusive’, click here.

    If your test showed a “preference” for a group, the result may point to a hidden, or unconscious bias. The results of over one million tests show that unconscious bias exists in most of us.

    This test measures implicit anti-Semitism, a tendency to associate Jews or Judaism with negative concepts more so than other social groups and religions. Anti-Semitism is widely believed to have declined in the last century, but nevertheless still exists, and may now exist more in implicit than overt form.

    This test uses symbols associated with Judaism, and contrasts them with combined symbols of several other religions. This design was intended to create a more general test than one that contrasted Judaic symbols with those of just a single other religion. This test may not be very informative for those who identify as Jewish. Their obtaining a result indicating implicit favorability to Judaism need not indicate that they are implicitly negative toward all other religions. However, the test may be informative to those who are not identified as Jewish. In them, a result indicating an implicit negative attitude toward Judaism can more likely be interpreted as such.

    If you are surprised or concerned about your test results, or if you’d like to know more about hidden biases and what you can do about them, go to Hidden Bias – a Primer.

    ———-

  3. aaron February 28, 2004 at 2:24 am | | Reply

    I would like to take the tests, but I refuse to put Flash on my computer. Having too much software seems to cause problems, and I hate the ads.

  4. Modesitt February 28, 2004 at 6:45 am | | Reply

    Opera does not play nice with those tests. I had to open up IE.

    I took the sexual orientation bias one twice. First time, it claimed a moderate preference for straight people. Second time, a moderate preference for gay people. Neither time did I conciously bias the results either way.

    Next up was the weapons test. Apparently, I strongly associate weapons with European Americans. Maybe I’ve been watching too much War in Iraq footage. I’m also moderately biased towards Judaism, which makes my inner atheist laugh.

    They could just randomly assign responses and it’d be more accurate.

  5. Richard Nieporent February 28, 2004 at 10:35 am | | Reply

    The results of over one million tests show that unconscious bias exists in most of us.

    So we are all guilty as charged. I think we should be more than a little concerned that the Left believes that these types of tests have any validity. Compared to these tests, a lie detector test is a paragon of accuracy. Think of how much fun the Left will have with their reeducation camps once they take over.

    Oh, by the way, you do realize that they are taking down the names of all of the “bigots” who took their test. The thought police will be arriving shortly. Have a good day.

  6. harm d. February 28, 2004 at 11:36 am | | Reply

    there’s something viscerally revolting about the automatic assumption that “measuring” all kinds of “unconscious biases” is:

    a) possible within a 15-minute timeframe, via a haphazard, thoroughly amateurish web-based cognitive test

    b) relevant

    this pseudo-testing endeavor is implicitly arguing that it doesn’t so much matter that one has spent years arguing in favor of israel’s right to territorial defense, or civil unions, or–whatever other fairly contentious political issue–but rather that abitrarily determined “unconscious biases” do.

    good lord.

  7. Bob B February 28, 2004 at 6:53 pm | | Reply

    I took the Anti-Semitism test – and all it measures is your ability to think fast and connect your brain to your fingers. They switch the mix of “good and bad” with the religous options – and then claim if you forgot “good” was moved and hit “bad” by mistake, you’re really showing a dislike for Jews.

    In my view, this test is total nonsense. It really adds to my disdain for those who pretend that this type of exercise actually measures bias. I believe they start with the assumption of bias and then slant their procedure to make damn sure they get their desired result.

  8. Chetly Zarko February 29, 2004 at 2:05 am | | Reply

    Bob, the dangerous thing is that these are allegedly paid professional psychologists; who’ve either 1) they’ve “lied” by intentionally using “perceptual set” bias (the order switching you recognized as well) to “prove” their claim of “real ethnic bias,” 2) they didn’t know about “perceptual set” bias, making them grossly unprofessional in their field.

    Reminds me of a psychology professor and Dean of a U-M School who attempted to “prove” in court testimony the educational benefits of “diversity” by ignoring “attribution bias” and “set response” bias. Or maybe this laudatory person simply didn’t deserve her doctorate and the tons of praise she still receives from various U-M administrators. I can accept the fact that the law and politics are sometimes indistinguishable. Its harder to accept it when science and politics become indistinguishable; science has been the one true engine of human progress since the Renaissance began 400 years ago. Is the Renaissance over?

  9. Gyp February 29, 2004 at 11:03 pm | | Reply

    I only took two tests: obviously I have a strong preference for straight people and a slight preference for thin people. Huh. I kept getting confused when everything switched sides, though, and I don’t know how you can judge the answers of a very confused person–but ya’ll said that already. I think everything hinges on the questions at the end. On the second one I said I’d rather be thin than fat (health, of course) and I think that’s what pulled out my “hidden bias.” Weird. So all those flashy things were for nothing, I guess.

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