I took both the race and gender tests twice, once in the lab and again at home.
Race Test:
I found it easier to distinguish the African Americans than the European Americans. I wonder if this is due to the photos being cropped and black and white, which in my opinion allowed there to be more focus on peoples noses (AA easier to recognize) and also AA skin color was more obvious than the EA. Is this my subconscious prejudice or is a fact/common observation?
My results: The 1st time I took the test it showed I had a strong automatic preference for white people and the 2nd time is showed a slight automatic preference for white people. My conscious beliefs disagree with the results of the test. I consider my teaching experience has desensitized my awareness of differences. Seven years ago when I walked into the playground at the school I teach at, the first thing I noticed was that most of the children were children of color but didn’t really notice the variety of colors and races. Now, that’s my norm. So now when I go see schools with predominantly, if not all caucasian students, I notice their “whiteness” and feel sad for the lack of diversity. Our experiences play such a strong part in how we see the world. Maybe my subconscious is still holding onto the experiences I had up until 10 years ago when I had little contact with people of color.
Gender Test:
I found my results to this test much more in line with my conscious beliefs which are that both career and family are equally important and that gender doesn’t play a role in the workplace, but that it does slightly in the home. The first time I took the test it showed I have a slight association between male and career; the second time showing I had little or no association with career or family.
Final thoughts/Question
How much does the initial information you input affect the outcome of your test?
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