3 Comments

1. 

   acilius

    /  November 4, 2009

   Thanks for linking to that! I did several of those a few years back. I’d read about the project on Steve Sailer’s blog, where Sailer claimed to have taken the Race automatic preference test several times and to have kept showing up as moderately to strongly preferring blacks over whites. Sailer posts a lot of interesting stuff, but he definitely does not prefer blacks over whites. He’s pretty seriously racist, in fact. So I figured the tests had to be baloney if they could give that result. But after taking several of them, I concluded that Sailer just had quick enough reflexes that he managed to game the tests. I tentatively concluded that, of course I’m not a social scientist so I don’t have the background to have a firm opinion.

2. 

   cymast

    /  November 4, 2009

   Regarding Sailer’s claim- I suspect he was making a joke.

   I chose a category and took a test. Results- “strongly biased,” though I disagree with the results, and metioned that in my feedback. Not only that, I had expected to have results of “slightly biased” in the other direction. I believe the pattern of pairing one sees at the beginning of the test is the pattern most people will latch onto for the rest of the test, considering it’s a timed test. My delayed reaction time in the last part of the test showed up as a “strong bias.” If it wasn’t timed, of course, the results would be less telling. Interesting to contemplate, though.

3. 

   cymast

    /  November 4, 2009

   If Sailer actually DID moderately to strongly prefer blacks over whites . . he would be racist.