From the ArcaMax Publishing, Health & Fitness Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/healthtips/s-568926-244511
SEATTLE (UPI) -- About 70 percent of people who took a version of a
test that measures racial attitudes had an unconscious preference for
white people, U.S. researchers said.
The study, published the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
showed the Implicit Association Test, a psychological tool, has
validity in predicting behavior and, in particular, that it has
significantly greater validity than self-reports in the socially
sensitive topics of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and
age.
Study leader Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington said
the researchers analyzed 122 published and unpublished reports of 184
different research studies. In this analysis, 85 percent of the
studies also included self-reporting measures of the type generally
used in surveys.
"In socially sensitive areas, especially black-white interracial
behavior, the test had significantly greater predictive value than
self-reports," Greenwald said in a statement.
The research looked at studies covering nine different areas --
consumer preference, black-white interracial behavior, personality
differences, clinical phenomena, alcohol and drug use, non-racial
intergroup behavior, gender and sexual orientation, close
relationships and political preferences.