Into the Blindspot (IAT reading) Flashcards
What examples do they give to explain the IAT?
Card types
Flower types and negative / positive words
How can you arrive at an exact score for written IAT tests?
Time it took for each section
minus number of errors
If had faster and fewer errors for one: Preference for insects over flowers
BUT usually, ppl have a preference for flowers over insects
What is a strong, Moderate, and slight preference with the manual IAT?
Strong automatic preference:
18
Moderate Automatic preference:
12-17
Slight Automatic preference:
6-11
Are ppl with doctorates immune to this?
No!
In a study found the average was 16 seconds
What does the effectiveness of the IAT rely on?
your brain has stored years of past experiences that you cannot set aside when doing this test
What do psychologists call valence, or emotional significance?
When categories can be linked to goodness or badness (ex. insects = badness) (connected by shared association)
Positive valence attracts (a trait positive things share)
Negative valence attracts
Explain how positive valence acts as “mental glue”
It bonds two categories together
(makes it easier/faster to sort flowers and positive words)
When no mental glue, makes it harder to do insects and positive words
Explain mental glue and “mental association”?
Mental association is what holds two categories together
What was the second type of IAT?
Race, replaced insects and flowers with black and white americans
How did one guy describe his first experience using it?
That it was a moment of jarring self insight
For what two reasons do they not want to equate “automatic white preference” with “prejudice”?
- Studies of explicit prejudice from the early 1900’s reveal that prejudice is dislike, disrespect, and IAT doesn’t suggest it taps into this hostility
- Not much research evidence to suggest it (haven’t been studies)
With the massive growth of IAT, what are two important findings ?
- Automatic white preference is pervasive in society (almost 75% who take it have this preference)
- The automatic preference expressed on IAT can signal discriminatory behaviour
- Even among ppl who say they are egalitarian
Explain one of the first studies on race IAT and discriminatory behaviour? (McConnell and Leibold)
42 undergrads
Videotaped students during interviews (one by a black woman / and one by a white woman)
And after the interviewer assessed how comfortable they felt the participant felt
See if strong automatic white preference was associated with more friendliness towards the white interviewer
Result: Ppl with higher lvls of automatic white preference were less friendly and less comfort
What did the meta-analysis (of many other studies reveal)?
That the IAT predicted racially discriminatory behaviour
What are some examples of race relevant behaviour that is predicted by automatic white preference?
Not voting for Obama, laughing at anti-black humour, doctors providing less adequate service to black patients
How much did the IAT correlate with discriminatory judgements and behaviour?
Moderately (need elaborations for it to be clearer)
What does a correlation value of .24 mean?
When discrimination may be shown by 50% of ppl (that we have race IAT scores of), we can expect discrimination to be shown by 62% of ppl having automatic white preference
(the ones in top half of distribution)
Which tests had higher levels of correlation? IAT or self report?
Self report: .12
IAT: .24
Did IAT correlate with overt racial actions?
Nope (no slurs, aggressive actions etc)
