Dr. Tony Greenwald, one of the psychologists who developed the test, says many people initially blame their results on the test, not themselves. The good news, according to Dr. Greenwald, is it is possible to change your test results. "One of the first experiments we did was one in which we showed images of admirable black Americans. People like Martin Luther King Jr., Colin Powell, Michael Jordan and, yes, Oprah Winfrey. Showing those kinds of images before the test increases the association of African-American with goodness," Dr. Greenwald says.
The bad news, Dr. Greenwald says, is that the change generally lasts only as long as the experiment. The way to permanently change a person's biases is to change what they are exposed to on a daily basis, Malcolm says. "If this unconscious side of us is reflecting our experiences, then if we choose different experiences, then that unconscious side of us changes as well," Malcolm says. "If you want to have a positive association between goodness and African-Americans, then you must surround yourself or put yourself in environments where those kinds of experiences and associations happen and are possible."
Take the test at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit.
