Implicit Revolution 2: Testing Our Implicit Associations

Dive deeper

Take an IAT.

“Look, I don’t know who you are, but I feel like there’s a good chance you’ve heard of something called implicit bias. Usually we talk about this as a kind of prejudice: racism, sexism, ageism, that lives beneath the surface of our conscious minds. The idea is that even when people openly embrace equality and vehemently deny that they act with bias, there can still be prejudices floating around in their heads […] But where did this idea of implicit bias come from? How can we measure biases that people don’t know they have, or at least are unwilling to endorse openly? And is implicit bias training really enough to address the inequities in our society?” Hear the conversation between psychologists Andy Lutrell and Mahzarin Banaji at Opinion Science.

“Is there a part of ourselves that we don’t acknowledge, that we don’t even have access to and that might make us ashamed if we encounter it?” NPR’s Invisibilia discusses the implicit revolution further in their episode “The Culture Inside”.

For a broader overview into the science of our blindspots, check out Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald.

For a broader introduction to how we think, and where our blindspots are, check out Daniel Kahneman’s NYT Bestseller and Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award (2012): Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Explore the lab websites of Professors Anthony G. Greenwald and Brian Nosek to learn more about their research on the implicit processes of the mind.

“We provide the first report of long-term change in both implicit and explicit attitudes — measured from the same individual — towards multiple social groups,” Charlesworth said … “implicit attitudes appear, in fact, to be capable of long-term durable change.” From Stephen Johnson’s Big Think article “Americans have become less biased — explicitly and implicitly — since 2004“