1. Ben Smith
Senior Seminar p.4
September 27, 2011
IAT Feedback
1) The word unconscious implies that we are oblivious to it, however, I don’t agree with this
statement. I think that everyone has at least some small idea of what their “unconsciously
motivated behavior” is. This is because every day, we see subliminal messages, and by noticing
those messages we influence our unconscious bias and also gain some minute amount of
knowledge about what ideas our brains are forming. Furthermore, it is a convenient way to
justify our biases that we don’t think we have or are ashamed of. For instance, I scored a neutral
preference between straight people and gay people on the IAT, and I didn’t think that would be
my bias because e of anti-gay propaganda that is quite common in many places.
2) I took the sexual IAT. My result was a neutral preference for either gay or straight. I thought that
I would get a preference towards the straight, but I didn’t. I along with 17% of other people who
took the test got the neutral preference category.
No, I did not meet my expectations, because I thought I would have a stronger preference
towards straight people. I think this is because my parents are quite liberal and have an open
view on issues such as sexual orientation. Also because I have family members who are gay and
they are normal healthy people just like anyone else, so I don’t have a negative view towards
homosexuals.