Another Anti-Republican Study

Well, it’s about time for another absurd psychological study looking at the racism of guess who–I know you will be shocked–Republicans–hat tip a href=”http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004410.htm”Michelle Malkin/a. Take a look at a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/29/AR2006012900642.html” this Washington Post article /a about a study that ties political leanings to hidden biases:br /br /blockquoteAnother study presented at the conference, which was in Palm Springs, Calif., explored relationships between racial bias and political affiliation by analyzing self-reported beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests that measure implicit attitudes — subtle stereotypes people hold about various groups.br /br /That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.br /br /”What automatic biases reveal is that while we have the feeling we are living up to our values, that feeling may not be right,” said University of Virginia psychologist Brian Nosek, who helped conduct the race analysis. “We are not aware of everything that causes our behavior, even things in our own lives.”/blockquotebr /br /and the study goes on to say:br /br /blockquoteFor their study, Nosek, Banaji and social psychologist Erik Thompson culled self-acknowledged views about blacks from nearly 130,000 whites, who volunteered online to participate in a widely used test of racial bias that measures the speed of people’s associations between black or white faces and positive or negative words. The researchers examined correlations between explicit and implicit attitudes and voting behavior in all 435 congressional districts.br /br /The analysis found that substantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces — evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush. /blockquotebr /br /a href=”https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/”Here is the test /athe biased liberals–I mean “reseachers”– used to make their point. It has been around for awhile but I have never taken it until today after seeing this silly article. My results are quite interesting. The first time I took the test, my results said that I had a moderate preference for European Americans to African Americans. I took the test a second time and it said I had a slight preference for African Americans over European Americans. Well, which is it?br /br /The test takes a bit of time–try it for yourself. But I remain a skeptic of this silly biased test–especially a href=”http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004410.htm”since the researchers are giving money to the Democratic Party/a–including Howard Dean. Doesn’t that fact tell you all you need to know about the reliability and validity of their “unbiased” research? And where is any research done by conservative psychologists about liberals? Or is conservative and psychologist an oxymoron?br /br /I also find the researchers conclusions about implicit tests to be laughable. They make the assumption that those with implicit or implied bias would be prejudiced in everyday life. One set of researchers at MIT and the University of Chicagoa href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A27067-2005Jan21?language=printer” did a study/a where they sent out the exact same resume to potential employers using a white or a black name. The whites got 50% more call backs. Wow, what a scientific study. I did my own similar scientific study in the late 80’s. A good friend of mine in Manhattan was trying to get into a PHD program in clinical psychology. These programs are extremely competitive and hard to get into–sometimes with over 600 applicants and 10 openings. Needless to say, my friend was devastated when she was turned down by every program. She came to me in tears before sending out her next set of applications and asked me what to do to get in. I took a look at her 3.7 grade average from NYU and impeccable credentials and told her to leave everything the same and change her name from her English sounding one to her married name of Gonzalez and mail out the applications. She did and next thing you know, she was swamped with interviews. The only problem? Once they saw her white face, they quickly lost interest. The moral of my little unscientific study? We can all come up with results that match our world views if we try hard enough.