The first quiz I took was the Presidents IAT. It said that I have a moderate preference for JFK over Obama, it wasn't totally shocking but I admittedly don't have a preference for many presidents over another. I believe this result may have came about because I don't really have a love for Obama, so I think it was more of a dislike for Obama than it was a love for JFK. I don't exactly know how this will shape or really matter in my life working with others. I have a view on presidents that they don't necessarily change much in society as a whole so this may not have been the best quiz to take when taking into account who I am and what I care about.
The next IAT I took was the association of weapons with white and black Americans. I was generally surprised by the result of me having a strong association of black Americans with weapons, it is unfortunate but it makes sense. I believe the results are this way because of the portrayal news channels create by pushing stories involving incidents with black americans and especially lately with things like Trayvon Martin and the events in Ferguson, Missouri. In a philosophy class I took last semester when I was at a different school in Upstate New York we covered implicit bias. The professor used a slide show to show the implicit biases people in society hold. There would be similar pictures of white people holding non-lethal objects then showed black people holding the same objects and the class was must quicker assuming that the black person was holding a weapon versus a non-lethal object as they actually were. It is sad and unfortunate that society happens to be like this but I believe eventually we will be able to rid of implicit bias involving race. I am again unsure how to fix this or work on this but I just need to become better with biases to a point where I no longer hold them. I will never become a good leader until that rings true.
Lastly, I took the IAT on old versus young people. The results of this that I moderately favor young people compared to old people. I am not surprised at all by this because young people are my peers and I tend to like my peers. I do not think it is any different than an older person would do assuming that they'd favor old people, since they are their peers. This will assist by showing that I need to show more compassion with older people even if I may favor younger people. I am positive that if I worked with older people more often this bias would change and go more in the middle of favoring old and young people. With more experience and time leading a more diverse age population, I believe I can get better.
From your second test involving the weapons it is unfortunate that the media has in a way set up a bias in many people's mind to make it seem as if african americans are dangerous and always carrying weapons. There is definitely an issue involving weapons with everyone in this country but medias influence has taught us to think otherwise. I think we have to unlearn these biased thoughts we all have.
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