Are you biased? You can take an online test here to determine various forms of bias.

Project Implicit is a non-profit organisation and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition; thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. One goal of the organisation is to educate the public about hidden biases.

The Project Implicit website hosts a number of Implicit Association Tests (IATs) in English. Choose and perform one of these tests.

This is how the project presents its tests:

"People don’t always say what’s on their minds. One reason is that they are unwilling. For example, someone might report smoking a pack of cigarettes per day because they are embarrassed to admit that they smoke two. Another reason is that they are unable. A smoker might truly believe that she smokes a pack a day, or might not keep track at all. The difference between being unwilling and unable is the difference between purposely hiding something from someone and unknowingly hiding something from yourself.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. The IAT may be especially interesting if it shows that you have an implicit attitude that you did not know about. For example, you may believe that women and men should be equally associated with science, but your automatic associations could show that you (like many others) associate men with science more than you associate women with science."

Take an Implicit Association Test here.

Criticism of Implicit Association Tests

Tests for implicit bias have become increasingly common, with the IATs linked to above being the most well-known. This is why they have been included in this course. That said, it is worth noting that scientific criticism has been levelled at this type of testing. There has been criticism of the validity and reliability of the tests, questions about what they actually measure and whether the method provides reliable results given that repeated measurements have provided inconsistent results. The ability of the tests to predict behaviour has also been questioned. You can find an overview of the debate on IATs by following this link:

https://qz.com/1144504/the-world-is-relying-on-a-flawed-psychological-test-to-fight-racism/

Refereces:

Forscher, P. S., Lai, C. K., Axt, J., Ebersole, C. R., Herman, M., Devine, P. G., & Nosek, B. A. (2016, August 15). A Meta-Analysis of Procedures to Change Implicit Measures. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000160

Gawronski, Bertram & Morrison, Mike & Phills, Curtis & Galdi, Silvia. (2017). Temporal Stability of Implicit and Explicit Measures: A Longitudinal Analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 43. 300-312. .