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forsythIn the Washington Post Magazine this weekend, they had an article, called See No Bias (visit BugMeNot to get by the registration). It's about implicit biases people have between various things, subconscious stereotypes. They give a link to the site with the info and tests, which is here, and has apparently been slashdotted by the article. So there's only a couple test up.
There wasn't much surprising in the article, at least not to me. People make implicit, quick decisions about many things, but what matters more is what you do. On the other hand, a la the bit in Revenge of the Nerds when the Nerds were applying to fraternities, I think in many hiring situations, it's best to leave out names and pictures and other personal info like that, so the recruiters are choosing by the qualifications, not any other extraneous information that could influence it. Anyway, the article's somewhat interesting, and the tests are too.
And no, I don't think the matchup between politics and the implicit biases is direct, there's a lot of factors. For one, conservatives these days tend to live in rural areas, and most rural areas also tend to be more white, so there's less of the constant interaction with all sorts of people you get in cities, and implicit biases can best be changed by encountering people that don't match the stereotype. And no, it's not calling anyone racist, or sexist, either, like I said, actions matter.
Oh, and the fat/skinny one I think might not be quite valid, 'cause most of the skinny people pictures they used looked deformed. Dunno if they used the same people and photoshopped them, or what, but.
There wasn't much surprising in the article, at least not to me. People make implicit, quick decisions about many things, but what matters more is what you do. On the other hand, a la the bit in Revenge of the Nerds when the Nerds were applying to fraternities, I think in many hiring situations, it's best to leave out names and pictures and other personal info like that, so the recruiters are choosing by the qualifications, not any other extraneous information that could influence it. Anyway, the article's somewhat interesting, and the tests are too.
And no, I don't think the matchup between politics and the implicit biases is direct, there's a lot of factors. For one, conservatives these days tend to live in rural areas, and most rural areas also tend to be more white, so there's less of the constant interaction with all sorts of people you get in cities, and implicit biases can best be changed by encountering people that don't match the stereotype. And no, it's not calling anyone racist, or sexist, either, like I said, actions matter.
Oh, and the fat/skinny one I think might not be quite valid, 'cause most of the skinny people pictures they used looked deformed. Dunno if they used the same people and photoshopped them, or what, but.
