Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

**doob10163** · 12-14-2006, 02:16 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

only moderately

**purebloodtexan** · 12-14-2006, 02:25 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

Originally posted by Reach

Apparently I do.

And so do a lot of others. About 72% of the population.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.jsp

Scroll down to find 'Weapons IAT'

I found the results of this test the most surprising.

Take the test (and others if you want) and discuss.

well, no matter what the stereotype is, i'll only use dangerous weapons if necessary (yes, i'm black)

the real stereotype is kicking other peoples' asses, not dangerous weapons

**TS_SonicMaster** · 12-14-2006, 02:59 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

Looks like I don't associate blacks and dangerous weapons. That result wasn't a surprise.

**Tokzic** · 12-14-2006, 03:05 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

Apparantly I do.

I did the old vs. young one though... no preference.

**Angel Shiyue** · 12-14-2006, 03:22 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

Huh, I guess I'm moderate. Well, I think that's good? Better than actually being prone to it, right?

**Reach** · 12-14-2006, 03:56 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

I had a strong preference for thin people, straight people and young people.

I'm certainly not a racist or someone that judges people critically based on appearance (nothing against gay people, support homo marriage), but I suppose this does unearth subconcious stereotypes floating around in the public (I had a very hard time pairing white with weapons and black with the non weapons...).

I found the results pretty interesting. As a society we've been sort of classically conditioned to believe these things subconsciously.

I'd say thin, straight and young are probably slightly instinctive (probably because the fat people used in the test are ridiculously fat). Black-Weapon association is definitely conditioned though.

**rickz0rz** · 12-14-2006, 04:55 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

"Your data suggest little or no association between White American and Black American with Harmless Objects and Weapons."

I was going to do the thin/fat test but that test took too long.

**Kilgamayan** · 12-14-2006, 05:01 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

Apparently I moderately associate weapons with white people. >_>

**jewpinthethird** · 12-14-2006, 05:08 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

I don't need a test to know that I associate black americans with dangerous weapons. I'm white, protestant, middle-class, and grew up in the suburbs.

**Grandiagod** · 12-14-2006, 05:22 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

I wouldn't if they would stop shooting at me.

**Afrobean** · 12-14-2006, 05:33 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

This test isn't very accurate. Even if there was no way any of the objects could have been related, I would have answered a little faster on the last sets just because I had gotten more comfortable with the format.

By the way, I got moderate.

I suppose it'd be a lot more accurate if I had done a different one than the race/weapons one first. Oh well.

**Reach** · 12-14-2006, 06:40 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

I personally didn't find the format difficult.

I also re took the test and got the exact same result.

Subconscious association tests are usually fairly accurate on first run and with repetitive testing because you're not supposed to think about it. IT doesn't matter if you arn't familiar with the testing. It's going to look for irregularities and patterns in your response times over a large data set. Becoming faster at responding as the test goes by is a known factor that is accounted for. That doesn't really matter. It's the associations that matter, which usually remain constant (IE as your reaction time increases the association speeds do as well so it stays constant).

However, if you try to go into the test dishonestly and skew your results, or waste time thinking about it and the format it could obviously skew the result. That's the way things go I guess.

**jewpinthethird** · 12-14-2006, 06:51 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

I didn't know Afro was a psychologist.

**Afrobean** · 12-14-2006, 07:05 PM

Re: Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

Originally posted by jewpinthethird

I didn't know Afro was a psychologist.

I also have a PhD in Sociology.

Seriously, though, I really have no connection between black people and weapons. Perhaps there is a connection between black people and violence in my subconscious thanks mostly to the media, but there is definitely not one with weapons.

Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

Do you associate black americans with dangerous weapons?

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