Thursday’s Thoughts on Gender: The following YouTube video was put together by Scientific American Frontiers. The host, Alan Alda, speaks with Dr. Mahzarin R. Banaji (Harvard University) and Dr. Brian Nosek (University of Virginia) on how the subconscious mind can influence decision making, especially regarding gender and racial biases. They discuss several experiments that use the “Implicit Association Test” (IAT) to reveal hidden gender and racial prejudices.
Alan Alda takes the IAT test that Dr. Banaji created, which shows to what degree we associate men with careers and women with family and the home. Even while consciously we want to associate females with career, our choices on the test reflect that sub-consciously, we don’t. The more you struggle, the more you are at war with your subconscious choices. Try to go as fast as you can without thinking about the choices. This is key.
The video shows Alan Alda taking the test and discussing the results, but then you will have the chance to try it out yourself. Here’s the link for the IAT test. There are other tests to take as well, other than the gender one. There is one on women in science fields, racial biases, and so forth. Take as many as you wish, and see what happens. The tests are very revealing. Let me know what you think about the test and/or the results in the end.
Which IAT test did you take, and what were your results? Do you think it’s an accurate indicator of subconscious choices and biases?
Related articles
- How to Stop Stereotyping (psychologytoday.com)
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Marina DelVecchio
Hi Marina,
I am fascinated by something my 3 year old did last week. We were watching Real Time with Bill Maher and he had a black woman and two white men on the panel. My son looked at the tv and said, “She can’t talk but the men can talk”!!!! What? My son, the kid with a black friend and a black godfather that he adores?
So, I think he’s inately sort of sexist because he hears me talk! My husband never says sexist things to me. Good thing he’s got me for a mom. I’ll be nipping that in the bud…this may be the result of too much Two and A Half Men with dad…”It’s part of their bonding time”