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Implicit bias test


Gorgon

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https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/uk/takeatest.html

 

I took this test for giggles. Apparently I have a slight bias for associating the male gender with the sciences and the female gender with the humanities.

 

So proof that the patriarchy is real ?

 

I suspect the learning curve is a big factor though. They test reaction time, and the whole time I felt that the test was trying to tell me that there was a connection. More precisely, if I know for a fact that one valid outcome, one that does not result in an error or taking too long which invalidates the result, is playing the test like a misogynist. Well, I'm a power gamer, I do whatever works best.

 

The only frame I got perfect was the last one and I played that one trying to anticipate the answers. 

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greg358 from Darksouls 3 PVP is a CHEATER.

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"If you are unprepared to encounter interpretations that you might find objectionable, please do not proceed further." :p

 

I did the fat-thin one, and came up with a strong automatic preference for thin people compared to fat people. The test is biased in of itself, though, because they make you do it one way the first time (where you learn to associate "good" things with thin people), and then reverse it for the second part of the test...by which time you've already had it ingrained in you to do it that way. I wish they'd done it in reverse, or more accurately, went back to the original way, because doing it in that manner introduces bias in of itself. Since it's difficult to avoid that original mental programming, perhaps it would be best to test 50% of people going one way, and then 50% the other way, to see how much that truly affects the results. That would be more about empiric results than individual, though.

Edited by Bartimaeus
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How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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I really question all this interest in implicit bias. Looking at the mind from the science of cognition, we aptly recognize that we are pattern building machines that build internal microcosmic models of externalities in order to operate over those models. We do this for all things. So when reality reflects certain distributions, the ability to acknowledge the raw distributions does not seem like it is of the sort of thing that would be called implicit bias. It is instead memory building, database building. Because of this necessary aspect our functioning, you will never get a pure enough reading on why someone's associations between things is as they are, and a lot of interest in this topic revolves around narrative building.

 

Now implicit bias does exist, clearly, but many of the proponents of it as a mainstream language to talk about the social landscape seem to themselves miss their own bias (implicit or not, who cares!) with regards to the entire theory itself. Namely that recognition, which as an associative function, is not the same sort of thing as the bias that they so much want to talk about. The bias that is defined by the underlying models, which comes out of statistics and machine learning, is actually the error of the model and the priors. Which is very different than what we humans talk about as bias.

 

For a questionnaire, it's clear certain leading questions will force people to pull the trigger one way or the other. If anything, that shows a bias towards the more familiar language.

 

I speak generally, and not specifically about the fine researchers running that particular questionnaire. They at least give a disclaimer on the fact that they will be interpreting results and any interpretation by not be valid with respect to the subject. Well being anonymous they are admitting to interpreting soiled results and warning the user to be prepared that you are feeding them data that they can choose to interpret as they wish, (which will be based on other results?) Kicking the can down the road, when they could solicit deeper inquiries directly with subjects. Better yet, do this all as a double blind.

 

But don't let me get in the way of their grants, I'm sure they just want to feed their families and retire with tenure.

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"If you are unprepared to encounter interpretations that you might find objectionable, please do not proceed further." :p

 

I did the fat-thin one, and came up with a strong automatic preference for thin people compared to fat people. The test is biased in of itself, though, because they make you do it one way the first time (where you learn to associate "good" things with thin people), and then reverse it for the second part of the test...by which time you've already had it ingrained in you to do it that way. I wish they'd done it in reverse, or more accurately, went back to the original way, because doing it in that manner introduces bias in of itself. Since it's difficult to avoid that original mental programming, perhaps it would be best to test 50% of people going one way, and then 50% the other way, to see how much that truly affects the results. That would be more about empiric results than individual, though.

mmm yeah, they show you a bunch of pictures of people who are thin and some who are neither particularly thin nor fat but somewhere in between and teach you that they are all 'thin'. That's a false dichotomy.  Thin isn't the opposite of fat - or rather, those people aren't all 'thin' some of them are regular size, you know, where you want to be if you aren't obsessive. 

 

Indeed being extra thin can have a bunch of negative associations as well.

 

What about healthy and not healthy. Most regular humans fall somewhere in between. 

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greg358 from Darksouls 3 PVP is a CHEATER.

That is all.

 

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I hope this test is a bad joke.

 

If it isn't it's an excellent example of just how truly unintelligent and uninspired some of those 'teaching' at Harvard really are.

 

Never minding the ridiculous methodology and a complete lack of a neutral appraisement before we get to the nitty gritty, the test reveals itself as being bias before one even takes it.

 

iiGsfne.png

Edited by Valsuelm
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Yeah, the fact that you're trained in one combo then made to do a reversed combo is a massive red flag. 

 

I tried the Skin one, then quickly peeked at the Countries one - the test design is far less plausible for 'appraising nationalism', and it does raise questions that they felt this one should also be included. 

 

I could potentially see the 'spoilers' Valsuelm mentions as being intended, i.e. activating many users' existing intention to prove that they are not biased towards males/thins/whites, but that would still be a questionable method & needless risk. 

 

Is it 'accurate' for my own implicit biases? I certainly can't tell you, otherwise it wouldn't be implicit. But the test certainly doesn't persuade me of its own validity or competence.

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Little to no automatic preference between the United Kingdom and the United States.

 

Gee, really. One's the appendix of the other anyway, so why would there be.

 

Oh, wait. Uhm... :p

 

Moderate automatic preference for Thin People compared to Fat People.

 

In this test I was first given the categories Fat and Good as a combination, so they seem to mix it up. And the moderate automatic preference had nothing to do with my personal bias and everything to do with the fact that during the "thin good, fat bad" portion of the test I got like 90% short positive words and thin faces.

 

Kept hitting the same button and had to correct mistakes on the fat side. What a load of crap.

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No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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An online test being sketchy, odd

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Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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I got as far as "insert your zip code" and went "nah."

 

You can just click on "OK" for any of the survey parts. It won't complain if you don't enter any data. Just hit the buttons until the testing starts.

No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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i tried the countries. it showed a slight preference towards UK over US. it was due to a difference of a few ms when making some choices.

it interpreted that delay as an association bias while it was actually just a small lapse in concentration.

Edited by teknoman2

The words freedom and liberty, are diminishing the true meaning of the abstract concept they try to explain. The true nature of freedom is such, that the human mind is unable to comprehend it, so we make a cage and name it freedom in order to give a tangible meaning to what we dont understand, just as our ancestors made gods like Thor or Zeus to explain thunder.

 

-Teknoman2-

What? You thought it was a quote from some well known wise guy from the past?

 

Stupidity leads to willful ignorance - willful ignorance leads to hope - hope leads to sex - and that is how a new generation of fools is born!


We are hardcore role players... When we go to bed with a girl, we roll a D20 to see if we hit the target and a D6 to see how much penetration damage we did.

 

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Let the white suits try and come get me. I'm dogsitting a rottweiler. 

 

What's got four legs and an arm?

 

 

A rottweiler at the playground.

 

 

Yeah I know, old jokes and all...

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No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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I got as far as "insert your zip code" and went "nah."

 

You can just click on "OK" for any of the survey parts. It won't complain if you don't enter any data. Just hit the buttons until the testing starts.

 

Oh, ok. My first thought was some kind of mild profiling by zip code and 2nd thought was my own over-protective anal-retentive privacy concerns. :D

“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
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I think that testing site has an implicit bias since it doesn't have Hispanic as an option but apparently White Irish is a thing. Plus is a bunch of dumb questions like, do you like thing X?

I'd say the answer to that question is kind of like the answer to "who's the sucker in this poker game?"*

 

*If you can't tell, it's you. ;)

village_idiot.gif

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I think the "what do you like/prefer" questions are there for their research purposes as well as to illustrate what you think you think vs. your results (as flawed as they may be).

Edited by Bartimaeus
Quote

How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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I think the "what do you like/prefer" questions are there for their research purposes as well as to illustrate what you think you think vs. your results (as flawed as they may be).

They are inaccurate as they poorly reflect intent and depth and as such are not suited for sciences.

I'd say the answer to that question is kind of like the answer to "who's the sucker in this poker game?"*

 

*If you can't tell, it's you. ;)

village_idiot.gif

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I think that testing site has an implicit bias since it doesn't have Hispanic as an option but apparently White Irish is a thing. Plus is a bunch of dumb questions like, do you like thing X?

 

Odd questions are often put in surveys to weed out bots (for internet surveys) and people who are doing a click through without actually reading. Classic example is something like 'do you like sushi?' (or whatever) then later asking 'do you hate sushi?'; if the respondent says 'yes' to both then their answers are obviously not consistent.

 

I also wouldn't discount the site having a deliberate implicit bias either- a decade or so ago there was a bias test where they would serve different introduction texts designed to prime people to answer the test in particular ways so as to test that facet of implicit bias as well. To use the example Vals quoted on the previous page, one version would say that people tended to be biased towards lighter skin tones while an alternative introduction would make no comment on expected results etc.

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