flaw in Unconscious Bias test from Oprah guest?

Question

Did anyone see the guest on Oprah and his book about the test they gave people to see if they were unconsciously a bit racist?
The test had people sorting the words "good" on a screen to the left and "bad" to the right. It then had people sort white faces to the left and black to the right.

It then had people sort faces in a way that showed people having slightly more difficulty placing black faces on the "good" side, by reversing the direction faces would be sorted. This was supposed to expose an unconscious prejudice.
I know prejudice is a real thing, but my question is, isn't there an obvious flaw here? Didn't priming people to sort the face to one side create the slight difficulty in switching over to doing it on the other side? I want to see the results of having people sort black to the left (or "good") first, and then switch to doing white to the left.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

Congratulations! Thank you for thinking critically. That's an astute observation.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, in your case, this has already been taken care of. They probably didn't show it on Oprah for the sake of time.

What typically happens in this IAT (Implicit Association Test) is the experimenter will have people broken into separate groups. The groups will receive the two different scenarios (in this case, black and white) differently.

In other words, group A will respond to black first, white second. Group B will respond to white first, black second.

What you are referring to is remedied by this randomization design, when the different groups receive the stimuli in different order to minimize order effects! (AB\BA design)

To continue your thoughts on this topic, when order effects have been controlled for, the IAT still reveals some sort of delayed response. IAT supporters deem this effect to be the result of implicit associations about groups of people (i.e., prejudice). You will see the same result when men and women (gender) are being tested. They don't do 'good' and 'bad' for gender, but it's a similarly structured test about gender roles, etc.

Now, with that being said, the core of the question remains: what IS the reason behind the delay? Researchers are quick to jump to the "prejudice" explanation, but that might not be the only one. Critics of the test think the latter.

Nonetheless, it is an interesting test with intriguing results, but should never be used to inform policy or greatly alter public opinion -- at least not until researchers know exactly what they are measuring.

How's that for putting you on the path for further critical thinking?

Answer 2

Yes, I saw it. And I went to the site to take the test myself. And frankly, it was more about dexterity and the organizational strength of the brain, more than it was about racism. I thought it was, truly, a bunch of crap. But there's hope yet...any of us can think of some kind of mindless test or idea, and as long as it fits into Oprah's thinking, you have your shot at the brass ring!!!