20
Biased? Harvard Wants to Know
Web test tries to suss out implicit prejudice via picture exercise
By Harry Kimball
|
Posted Nov 1, 09 5:57 AM CST
|
Share
(Newser)
–
Do you have a subconscious love of gays—or hatred of white people? There's an app for that. Actually, it's a website that's part of a study by Harvard, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington . “Project Implicit” gathers personal information, then puts you through a 15-minute test meant to gauge prejudice toward different groups through questions and a word/picture exercise.
Adam Ostrow ended up with a racial bias test. “Words will get swapped around, for example, putting ‘White People’ and ‘Bad Words’ on the same side and vice versa,” he writes for Mashable. “The idea is that if this becomes tricky, it might mean you have a preference.” He calls it “a bit of an exercise in hand-eye coordination more than anything else” and says it offers “interesting perspective.” And though he says he’d love those “bold enough to share your own findings” to do so, interestingly, he doesn’t.