Blog Assignment–IAT

For the The Implicit Association Test (IAT) I took the Sexuality Test. The test gauged my preference for straight or gay people. I wanted to take this test because I am definitely sure of my sexuality (straight), but I have also never really thought of any different of any others sexuality. I have many friends that are gay and I love them just the same as my others.

The results from my test said that:

Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Straight People compared to Gay People.

The interpretation is described as 'automatic preference for Straight People' if you responded faster when Straight people and Good words were classified with the same key than when Gay people and Good words were classified with the same key. Depending on the magnitude of your result, your automatic preference may be described as 'slight', 'moderate', 'strong', or 'little to no preference'.

I found my results surprising seeing that I have a lot of friends that are gay. Moderate is very close to strong so I am trying to see what the test is suggesting about my preference for various sexualities that I do not directly see. As I sat and I thought I did think about a friend that I have that is now gay. We were best friends in middle school, but now we barely talk. I have no issue with her, but I am also not reaching out to be the best of friends again with her. I was thinking that "wow, that is weird!" because I hang out with gay guys a lot. But based of that the test this may be my eye-opener. Maybe I have more of an issue than I thought with females that are gay than with males that are gay.

I also do not think the (IAT) is that accurate. I do not think that pushing certain keys on keyboard can accuratley tell me my perference of people. During the test I found myself clicking the keys fast and making mistakes on both sexualites because of the speed I was clicking at.