Citizen Science Spotlight : Project Implicit

This week’s blog post is a Citizen Science Spotlight guest-written by one of our summer high school interns, Zoë Elizee!

What do you think of when you hear the terms good and bad? We usually classify these words based on societal norms, past experiences, or family beliefs. Once we make that distinction between good and bad, we abide by a set of principles in everyday life, a term most commonly referred to as values.

However, sometimes we are unaware or unable to admit that we associate different concepts with a positive or negative connotation, for instance, associating the color red with evil and danger and the color green with pleasant and safe.

Meet Project Implicit

The product of University of Washington, Harvard University, and University of Virginia, Project Implicit explores the social cognition of human behavior; its primary focus is to investigate the gap between intentions and actions. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a specialized test used to measure a person’s automatic response when associating concepts (e.g., race, skin color) with stereotypes (e.g., stupid, strong) or evaluations (e.g., good, bad). By assessing the values of humans, Project Implicit enlightens the public of the unintended bias a majority of participants experience towards a range of topics.

How does it work?

Project Implicit is exclusively for online participants. After choosing a test to take part in (any that may interest you), you will be asked to sort words or pictures that are related to the concept into two categories as quickly as possible. The option for the categories will be on the left or right hand corner of the screen. To sort a word or image, press the “e” key on your keyboard to choose the left category and the “i” key to choose the right category. The categories will switch places, so be cautious. The objective is to test your immediate response to stereotypes.

For example, in the “Race IAT”, the essential part of the task is to sort images of African and European origin, along with words relating to good and bad. You will be asked (but not forced) to answer some questions about any prejudices that you may feel towards black or white people, as well as some demographics about yourself.

You will then be taken to a screen that looks like this:

For each part, you will be asked to categorize good and bad type words, black and white faces, or an integration of both. The objective of the experiment is to test the hypothesis that a majority of Americans will favor people of European origin over people of African origin based off their immediate response to associate good words with white faces and bad words with black faces.

Why does it matter?

According to the results of the Race IAT, a majority of online participants have a moderate automatic preference for European Americans over African Americans. Most people preferred the stereotype that black people are associated with bad and white people are associated with good.

Although some might choose to ignore it, discrimination exists. Whether by race, gender, sexuality, or anything else it is a recurring issue. Implicit preferences can predict prejudicial behavior not only in society, but also in professional settings, such as hiring someone for a job or practicing medicine. The IAT allows people to come to reason with these unconscious feelings and thoughts they might have.

Want to Participate?

Be a citizen scientist and visit the Project Implicit organization website at https://www.projectimplicit.net/index.html. Participate in one of their associations task to find out some of your subconscious thoughts.