Psychological tool can assess people’s innate prejudice
24 June 2009
Diversity training could be set to become a more daunting experience in future after psychometric tests that establish whether a person holds discriminatory attitudes hit the market.
“Implicitly”, licensed by psychology firm Hogrefe, is a series of eight tests to establish to what extent the subject is instinctively racist, sexist, homophobic or biased against disabled or old people. The tests work by presenting the sitter with a series of pictures of people, which they must match with “good” or “bad” words as they appear in quick succession. The subject’s prejudices are shown by how long they take to accomplish the task correctly, and by how many mistakes they make.
“Implicit association tests” have long been used by psychologists to gauge the associations held by individuals, but have never been adopted on a significant scale in the workplace.
Dr Pete Jones, research director at Shire Professional Chartered Psychologists, which developed Implicitly, said that everybody had prejudices, or “people preferences”, and that being aware of them was vital for both individuals and employers. “If you ask an audience of 200 people to put up their hand if they are prejudiced, no-one is going to admit it,” said Jones. “But almost everybody is, and knowing where my prejudices lie gives me an advantage. If I’m a manager and I’ve been told I have a prejudice against, say, Asian people, then the next time I’ve got an Asian job candidate in front of me then I’m going to challenge my own decisions.”
The tests can be used to good effect in a coaching or management development context, said Jones, and if sensitively handled could also play a role in recruitment. The tests have been piloted successfully by a handful of public- and private-sector employers including a probation service, he said.
Sandra Kerr, director for Race for Opportunity, said that “bias testing” had always played a role in diversity training and that moving such testing online did not necessarily make it more sinister. “If you are intelligent and self-aware, testing can help understand yourself better. Everyone has got prejudices and most of the time they do not show up, but it’s about recognising that under stress we often revert to what’s comfortable.” She said she knew of employers that used bias tests but only as a “conversational piece” rather than a source of hard data.
Becky Mason, people and policy manager at BT group, said that her firm did not use such tests at the moment but said the concept was a useful one. “Anything that helps people look beyond hidden stereotypes, and see that fundamentally diversity is about recognising talent, could be worthwhile,” said Mason. She pointed out that there are already web-based “cultural awareness tools” that may perform a similar function.
But one independent reviewer who PM asked to take the tests expressed unease at the experience. “I was told I was in the top 6 per cent in terms of being racially prejudiced. It’s an interesting process but I’m far from convinced that it’s accurate and would be very uncomfortable about my employer having that information or making any decisions on the basis of it,” he said.