What you think and what you feel aren't always the same. Due to our upbringing, cultural norms, and/or personal experiences and ignorances, we may carry unconscious assumptions and feelings about ethnic groups, religions, political leaders, animals, sexual preferences, genders, and many other sub-categories of people and things. What we think is right -- or what we think we're supposed to think -- is one thing. Gut reactions can sometimes be different.
Project Implicit® is a fascinating ten-year-old psychological study that helps test and uncover these unconscious feelings and assumptions.
It was begun at Yale and carried on by researchers at Harvard, the University of Washington, and the University of Virginia. The test continues to be refined and fine-tuned according to the responses of thousands (I'm guessing) of anonymous internet users taking their tests.
I ran across Project Implicit's website by accident while web surfing, and took some of the demo's tests. My reaction while taking them intrigued me as well, since I've got a degree in mythology with a concentration in psychology. I found myself anxious on some tests, because it was slightly upsetting to see certain positive/negative things associated with certain groups. I also started out being worried that I'd uncover some skeletons in the closet I was ashamed of-- biases or unconscious reactions that I didn't approve of.
For the most part I was relieved: apparently I honestly have NO strong positive or negative reactions to any particular skin color or white vs. black race. I found a slight bias associating whites and Europeans with America verses honest-to-gosh Native Americans. And I found a slight bias towards religions other than Judaism, which interests and saddens me a little, since I'm a quarter Jewish. (I don't think it was so much pro-Christianity as that I've studied and enjoy symbols of some eastern and Native American religions: they appeal to my gut. But I can't be sure.)
I haven't tried the tests on politics or some of the other tests yet, but I find the site oddly addictive. Seeing how I match up to other test-takers was interesting.
The site collects personal information on gender, education, where you live, religious affiliation and/or religiosity, and a few other data sets, but does NOT ask for any personally-identifiable information such as name, address, or phone number. Obviously, they're trying to get a sense of how race, upbringing, geography, education and religious association (if any) affect one's unconscious feelings about other people and things.
Try it for yourself. You'll help them further refine their testing process, and you might learn something about yourself. Remember, NO ONE else will see your test results, and no one is grading you or watching you except you. So don't worry about trying to give the answer you think you ought to give: take the tests as fast as possible, don't worry about mistakes, because the more you just do it by gut instinct and feel, the more you'll learn about yourself when it's done.
