Johnno

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Project Implicit



How do you view the world in terms of good/bad, young/old, black/white?

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Posted by Johnno at 11:38 am

7 Comments:

  • Methinks Harry racked up some less then desirable results ;-)

    These tests work on statistical levels that are not neccesarily transparent to the subject. I hope to have a test, not unlike these, online by next spring, part of my research project.

    By Blogger Peter (the other), at 6:06 am  

  • I only took one of the tests (the young/old, bad/good one). I found it felt accurate as to a slight bias towards young. When I was taking the etst, I felt annoyed at myself for that very bias.

    Now you've put me right off taking the others. It's enough to make one curious. Mssr. Open Mind posts the link to the tests, and then husbands his opinions. A deep wisdom :-)

    By Blogger Peter (the other), at 8:40 am  

  • facinating

    By Blogger Evyn, at 8:52 am  

  • Research ethics are an open question, and as such, one (I feel) might be left to each individual. How one understands the word responsible is also an open question. Was Einstein responsible for Hiroshima? If I invent a hammer to make a house with, but someone else uses it to clock someone on the head, am I responsible?

    These are areas where I don't expect answers, the process being what is important. But being the son of a late scientist, I tend to err on the side of the work/data. What others do with it, might be their concern.

    By Blogger Peter (the other), at 12:09 pm  

  • Yeah. I can see shades of grey through the whole deal. I had some vague sense of "something isn't right" when I did the test a few weeks ago when it first surfaced. There were only four tests at the time, which appears to have branched out into even more "implicit association" tests. The subliminal qualities of the images have one wondering,"What is going on?".

    Keep in mind this is from Harvard which has all the associations of power and the nursery of the future "masters of the universe". The guys and gals doing this research aren't going to be any dummies.

    So I suppose the best idea would be to find out who is financing this gig.

    Which I did..... only after Harry saying he smelt a rat.

    Here are the funding parties.

    National Institute of Mental Health
    R01-MH068447
    Principal Investigators: Brian Nosek(PI), Mahzarin Banaji(co-PI)
    Project Title: A Virtual Laboratory for the Social and Behavioral Sciences
    Funding Period: June 1, 2003 - May 31, 2008

    Indiana University
    NIH DA013555
    Subcontract: Brian Nosek
    Project Title: Implicit Smoking Cognitions
    Funding Period: September, 2003 - August, 2007

    Rudd Institute
    Contract: Brian Nosek
    Project Title: Implicit Weight Bias
    Funding Period: December, 2001 - March, 2005

    So I did a google search on the Rudd Institute and find it's website is hosted on the other "nursery of power" at Yale.

    http://www.yale.edu/rudd/

    Where their mission statement reads :"The Rudd Institute’s mission is to document, understand, and ameliorate the bias, stigma and discrimination associated with obesity." (I had to look up ameliorate..... it smacks of newspeak....in a rough sense it means improve).

    So obesity is good, smoking is good/bad and the Institute of Mental Health stateside has a better idea how the average punter on the net ticks.

    I dunno, but the world just got one stage weirder.

    By Blogger Johnno, at 2:26 pm  

  • Well done (the research on the research). Boy, this Rudd outfit seem very curious, I wonder the back story.

    "Obese man dies, leaves fortune to Institute bearing his name".

    It looks like the gov. (Mental Health) are interested/paying for the actual web programming, and the ability to sample across a very divergent population. The two other outfits, IU and Rudd have contracted this Nosek to run some tests using this programming. There is nothing that ties these two funding sources to this actual set of tests. The ones we are seeing might be the pilot tests that are proving the "virtual" system can work reliably.

    By Blogger Peter (the other), at 2:40 pm  

  • I have just taken a few more of the (demo) tests. Although of sinisterly political titles, I see this more as wishing to test things with a certain amount of contemporary sexiness. The people doing the research (including Mr. Nosek and Mahzarin Banaji) are all displayed on the site, along with their cv's.

    I don't know, but I guess I am more curious then worried about nefarious connections. My research, at the moment, involves measuring how specific musical techniques, in conjunction with watching a motion picture, effect emotion. So, we might say I am biased in this area :-)

    By Blogger Peter (the other), at 3:16 pm  

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