The sorting test you just took is called the Implicit Association Test (IAT). You categorized Asian American and European American faces with words and photos relating to the categories “American” and “Foreign”, and the categories “Good” and “Bad.”

What was this study about?

Past research has shown that Americans typically associate 'American' more with European Americans over Asian Americans. This study explores whether this stereotype is driven by the positivity and negativity associated with the terms 'American' and 'Foreign.'

Here is your result:

Your data suggest no automatic association between Asian American with Good or Bad.

Your data suggest no automatic association between Asian American with American or Foreign.

American/Foreign IAT

If you were faster responding when European American and American were assigned to the same response key than when European American and Foreign were assigned to the same key, then this suggests you implicitly associate European Americans with the category “American” more than you associate Asian Americans with the category “American.” If you were faster responding when Asian American and American were assigned to the same response key than when Asian American and Foreign were assigned to the same key, then your score reflects the opposite implicit association.

Good/Bad IAT

If you were faster responding when European American and Good were assigned to the same response key than when Asian American and Good were assigned to the same key, then this suggests you have an implicit preference for European American over Asian American. If you were faster responding when Asian American and Good were assigned to the same response key than when European American and Good were assigned to the same key, then this suggests you have an implicit preference for Asian American over European American.

General information about your results

Your automatic association may be described as "slight", "moderate", "strong", or "no preference". This indicates the strength of your automatic association.

Was your result: "There were not enough trials to determine a result"? The IAT requires a certain number of correct responses in order to get results. You may have made too many errors while completing the test or went too quickly. Accordingly, there were too many errors to determine a result.

Note that your IAT result is based only on the categorization task and not on the questions that you answered.

More Information
Disclaimer

These results are not a definitive assessment of your implicit preference. The results may be influenced by variables related to the test (e.g., the category labels or particular items used to represent the categories on the IAT) or the person (e.g., how tired you are). The results are provided for educational purposes only.

How Does The IAT Work?

The IAT measures the strength of associations between concepts (e.g., Asian American, European American) and attributes (e.g., American, Foreign). The main idea is that making a response is easier when closely related items share the same response key. We would say that one has an implicit preference for Asian American relative to European American if they are faster to categorize words/pictures when Asian American and American share a response key relative to when European American and American share a response key.

Any single IAT is unlikely to predict behavior well for a specific individual. In the aggregate, the IAT can predict behavior such as discrimination in hiring and promotion, medical treatment, and decisions related to criminal justice.

Does The Order In Which I Took The IAT Matter?

Yes, the order in which you take the IAT can influence your overall results. But, the effect is very small. So if you first pair Asian American + American / European American + Foreign and then pair Asian American + Foreign / European American + American, your results might be a just a tiny bit different than they would be if you had done the reverse pairing first. To minimize the order effect, we give more practice trials before the second pairing than we did before the first pairing. We also randomly assign participants to one of the two possible orderings, so half of the test-takers complete Asian American + American / European American + Foreign and then Asian American + Foreign / European American + American, and the other half get the opposite order.

I Still Have Questions About The Study.

If you have questions about the IAT, please check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). If you have any questions or comments about the study, please email the lead investigator Mahzarin Banaji (mahzarin_banaji@harvard.edu).

Your Participation And Financial Support Are Important!

Thank you again for participating in this research! We have learned so much from people like you taking the time to be part of our work. If you have time, please consider taking another test by clicking the button below.

As a non-profit organization, we would also appreciate your financial support. Since our establishment in 2005, we have educated more than a million visitors each year about implicit biases concerning race, gender, sexual orientation, and other topics. Your donation supports Project Implicit's educational, scientific, and public service missions.