Does the popular race IAT stand up to careful scrutiny?
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CounterCurrent:
Prejudice Under the Microscope
Does the popular race IAT stand up
to careful scrutiny?
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: New Racism; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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** Featured Series - Prejudice Under the Microscope: The Implicit Association Test by Craig Frisby ([link removed])
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America is obsessed with racism. A search on Amazon Books ([link removed]) for “racism” turns up over 40,000 results, including over 2,000 new releases in the last 90 days and nearly 1,000 in the last 30 days. What used to be considered an offensive attitude of prejudice toward those of different races and ethnicities, one possessed by specific people and expressed through specific words and deeds, is now seen as an ever-present force in the ether, permeating every corner of the universe and affecting everyone all of the time.
Part of the way in which sociologists, psychologists, and other race-hustling “scholars” have convinced us of racism’s omnipresence is through the concept of “implicit bias ([link removed]) ,” that is, the idea that we may have prejudicial views of other groups without even knowing it. Some have taken this a step further, proclaiming that “all white people are racist ([link removed]) ,” that non-whites are incapable of racism ([link removed]) , and that if a white person denies his being racist, he is displaying “white fragility ([link removed]) .” All of these ideas and more have been classified under the umbrella terms of “critical race theory” (CRT) and New Racism ([link removed]) , as opposed to the
now-outdated (and racist) concept of Old Racism.
In an effort to quantitatively measure such an elusive thing as implicit bias, social psychologist Anthony Greenwald and several colleagues at the University of Washington developed the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Greenwald et al. first documented the IAT in a now-famous 1998 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “Measuring Individual Differences in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test ([link removed]) ,” which remains one of the top-five cited articles in the journal’s history. Since then the IAT has exploded in popularity and has become the go-to tool ([link removed]) for racism-hunters the world over.
Some remain skeptical, however. Should we trust the race IAT as a reliable measure of the bias one may or may not hold?
In this week’s featured article series ([link removed]) , Craig Frisby of the University of Missouri takes a deep dive into the IAT, analyzing the history, structure, and results of the test. In doing so, he investigated four key categories:
1. Does the IAT actually measure what it purports to measure? Or, are there plausible competing explanations as to what is being measured? How much of whatever is being measured is useless ‘noise’?
2. Whatever the IAT purports to measure, does it do so reliably? That is, can whatever is measured provide stable scores over time?
3. Is whatever is being measured related in meaningful ways to other behaviors measured in laboratory settings?
4. Is whatever is being measured related in meaningful ways to other behaviors deemed to be significant and important in real-world contexts?
Frisby answers these questions in a three-part series ([link removed]) , introducing the IAT and his analysis in Part I ([link removed]) , tackling categories 1-3 in Part II ([link removed]) , and concluding his analysis in Part III ([link removed]) . Does the IAT stand up to scrutiny when placed under the microscope?
Until next week.
David Acevedo
Communications & Research Associate
National Association of Scholars
P.S.: Craig Frisby’s IAT trilogy is part of a larger MTC symposium ([link removed]) on white fragility, New Racism, and critical race theory. Give the series a read ([link removed]) .
Read More ([link removed])
For more on New Racism and higher education:
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December 18, 2020
** Why Scholar-Activists Made Everything About Identity and Why This Goes So Badly Wrong ([link removed])
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Helen Pluckrose & James Lindsay
How did we get from historic liberalism to social justice progressivism?
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December 04, 2020
** Turning Higher Education and America From Racism ([link removed])
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William H. Young
Each year, more Americans see racism as a major problem plaguing the country. And yet, there has been very little change in the status of blacks for decades. Might sociologists be to blame?
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August 27, 2020
** The Intellectual Fragility of White Fragility ([link removed])
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Craig Frisby & Robert Maranto
White fragility has become a national sensation, serving as a rallying cry for the woke. Does the concept hold water?
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April 09, 2018
** The Irreproducibility Crisis of Modern Science ([link removed])
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David Randall and Christopher Welser
Many supposedly scientific results cannot be reproduced, because of improper use of statistics, arbitrary research techniques, lack of accountability, political groupthink, and a scientific culture biased toward producing positive results.
** About the NAS
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