How Racist Are You?

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on April 27, 2008 at 11:38 am


So. How racist are you? That’s the question asked by an online psychology test by the University of Chicago. The test involves showing you a series of photographs of 100 black or white men, either holding guns or cellphones. You have to decide - in a split second - whether to shoot them or to holster your gun.

Nicholas D. Kristof, a (white) columnist of The New York Times took the test. And discovered this:

I shot armed blacks in an average of 0.679 seconds, while I waited slightly longer — .694 seconds — to shoot armed whites. Conversely, I holstered my gun more quickly when encountering unarmed whites than unarmed blacks.

Take the test yourself and you’ll probably find that you show bias as well. Most whites and many blacks are more quick to shoot blacks, no matter how egalitarian they profess to be.

Eric L. Hinton of Diversity Inc, who is black, also took the test, and found out the same thing:

But what concerns me is that, armed or not, I "shot" Black targets faster than I shot white targets. I shot Black armed targets at an average of 0.631 seconds versus white armed targets at 0.662. Even more disturbing - I shot Black unarmed targets at an average of 0.783 seconds versus white unarmed targets at 0.792.

Fractions of seconds? Yes, but still unsettling when you consider the real life implications of armed police officers who make these life and death decisions in real life situations as they encounter Black men on the street.

So, how would you do? Just how racist are you? Take the test and find out! Link

(I did horribly on the test - I shot practically everyone, black or white! Then I got nervous, and got shot by everyone else!)


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COMMENT

90 comments to "How Racist Are You?"

  1. Shervin
    April 27th, 2008 at 11:57 am

    I took the test and showed the same bias as the columnist. But I also shot two unarmed whites while I only shot one unarmed black. Very interesting test, although I know I’m not racist.

  2. sterlinm
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 685
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:698.32ms
    Black Unarmed:770.2ms
    White Armed:671.6ms
    White Unarmed:755.32ms

    Is that good?

  3. Sarah M
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 535
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:609.2ms
    Black Unarmed:756.72ms
    White Armed:638.2ms
    White Unarmed:735.6ms

    I am a single white female.

  4. fluff
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    Totally inconsistet result on my side; I am pretty sure I only concentrated on the gun and that the color of the skin did not make any difference. I am quite good at abstracting, and concentrating, though.

  5. bean
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    So a difference in average reaction time that is less than a hundredth of a second equals racism now?

    Racism would be if you take the test and shoot all black people or all white people regardless of weaponry.

  6. Anony
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    Would be fun to be able to play but I have no ‘/’ button.

  7. Foosnark
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    I had slower reaction times vs. blacks on all counts. I accidentally shot one white and one black, and got shot several times.

    When I was taking the test I don’t think I consciously registered whether most of them were black or white; I was looking for the gun.

  8. HollywoodBob
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    I think all this “test” proves is that the creator was racist. It seemed like every time there was more than 2 armed individuals strung together they were mostly black, yet armed whites were always following a sequence of unarmed people. I have a feeling this stringing people together lessens our reaction time in each subsequent image effectively skewing the results to make everyone look racist.

  9. fluff
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    I wonder if the sequences are random… Anyone?

  10. Tiago
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    i wonder what keys non american keyboards must use… ughh racist game, only works good on american keyboards…

  11. Tiago
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

    figured it out.. in portugal its the ~ instead of the /

    Game Over
    Your Score: 485
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:583.44ms
    Black Unarmed:710.8ms
    White Armed:631.96ms
    White Unarmed:691.36ms

  12. chelly
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    I’m more checking out peoples reaction times than worrying about being racist…

    Game Over
    Your Score: 170
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:605.16ms
    Black Unarmed:770.4ms
    White Armed:641.64ms
    White Unarmed:768.4ms

  13. fluff
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    Anyhow. There are some stats missing. Without averages and deviances this is pretty useless…

  14. L
    April 27th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 535
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:610.36ms
    Black Unarmed:697.6ms
    White Armed:604.12ms
    White Unarmed:624.2ms

    So it took me longer to holster my gun for an unarmed black man. But I was more quick to shoot the white guys with the guns!

    I was looking for the gun rather than skin colour, anyway.

  15. slartibartfast
    April 27th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    I’m white, and I got…

    Black Armed:676.24ms
    Black Unarmed:707.44ms
    White Armed:627.88ms
    White Unarmed:735.84ms

    Was I biased by the fact that I knew the premise of the game before playing it? Probably. Did I gun down about 6 innocent cell phone users? Uh…

  16. Tom
    April 27th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    It doesn’t read my / or z for some reason.

    Also, one shouldn’t shoot someone just because they are holding a gun. You should only shoot them if they threaten you or someone else with the gun or another weapon.

  17. jack.wh
    April 27th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

    Oh dear… heee heee hee, I got a negative score :P

    Game Over
    Your Score: -570
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:713.88ms
    Black Unarmed:743.6ms
    White Armed:681.12ms
    White Unarmed:689.48ms

    However, I’m not racist, and I know it, so, uh, it must be fluked! :)

  18. Xopl
    April 27th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    What a flawed test. There was more than one time when I thought gun or not in my head and accidentally pressed the wrong key.

    I never once looked at the face of the person I was shooting or not shooting, I was just looking for a hand, and then to see what was in that hand.

    The silhouettes of the black/white people were not a control of the study… they were a variable. You can’t make valid scientific observations when it’s harder to see if there’s a gun in somebody’s hand because of how they are standing. Or because the gun is black and their shirt is black… kind of hard to make out the outline of the object and determine if it is a gun.

    Game Over
    Your Score: 530
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:602.44ms
    Black Unarmed:777.16ms
    White Armed:571.12ms
    White Unarmed:725.64ms

    And I highly doubt these results are of any statistical significance. Human reaction time often varies in that 30ms range.

    You could do this test with lions and tigers or cats and dogs and see results like this.

    AND, correlation is not causation.

  19. Thomas
    April 27th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    I accidentally fired 50-something shots at three unarmed blacks. Does that make me a racist?

  20. Thomas
    April 27th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    BTW —
    Your Score: 450
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:760.8ms
    Black Unarmed:829.96ms
    White Armed:775.92ms
    White Unarmed:821.12ms

  21. just a guy
    April 27th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    something else i find interesting - the game encourages violence. You get more points for shooting an armed person (10) then you do for sparing an unarmed person (5).
    Similarly, you lose less point for shooting an unarmed person (15), then you do for not shooting an armed person (40). (granted, this aspect could reflect risking your own life, but shooting innocents is pretty bad).

    I have to agree about positioning. Some people in this game are holding their cans of sode in really strange position. Also, it would be easier (and more realistic) to make a decision if the person was animated and swinging the obect to ‘take aim’. Most rational people woulding aim their ’soda’ at you like a gun (and those do in real life are basically knowingly commiting suicide).

  22. lichen
    April 27th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    Your Score: 190
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:769.08ms
    Black Unarmed:965.92ms
    White Armed:743.64ms
    White Unarmed:791.68ms

    I found the pictures of denver to be distracting. I lived there very briefly. so I kept trying to figure out where the picture was taken.

    Sometimes the color of the shirt and the poses they are in makes it hard to see what’s going on too.

  23. DrJones
    April 27th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    When I started the test, I thought the goal was to look at the person and determine if they were going to shoot you, regardless of gun or phone in hand. You know, like if someone is holding a gun for a legit reason while innocent, or a guy has a cell phone to distract you from the gun he’s got in his other hand. So, half of the test I was judging the “character” or “motive” of the person, not what was in hand. Then I realized that the “innocent” ones had phones, and the “shooters” had guns. When I realized that, I started shooting the guns, not the person holding them.

    I guess that means the test is racist/speciesist against phones or guns. While fun, the test is horribly flawed.

  24. mark
    April 27th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 510
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:630.28ms
    Black Unarmed:723.04ms
    White Armed:650.04ms
    White Unarmed:670.2ms

    Arab boy growing up in America.

  25. xyz
    April 27th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    Racism? One-one hundredth of a second? Give me the grant money, I’d like this job. If you would like a good example of racism come to Philadelphia. Whites, blacks, hispanics and asians (is the order of ethnicity racist?) all crowded into so-called, what used to be “neighborhoods”. Nutter, the current mayor, recently had a city-wide clean-up because of the elections, full well knowing that the “City of Brotherly Love” would be in the national focus. Elections are over; “Filthy-delphia” once again reigns. Ride the “El”; walk the streets. If you’re white be careful of the neighborhoods you visit. Please don’t tell me about racism.

  26. Drayzel
    April 27th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    I guess my keyboard is an NRA fanatic…

    I held down the / key the whole time… for some reason it shot unarmed pictures 25% faster… I dunno… maybe my keyboard hiccuped for a second.

    Game Over
    Your Score: -500
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:58.56ms
    Black Unarmed:46ms
    White Armed:61.92ms
    White Unarmed:45.92ms

  27. Johhny
    April 27th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 540
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:781.4ms
    Black Unarmed:798.56ms
    White Armed:737.56ms
    White Unarmed:751.36ms

    All the test proved to me is that it was harder to discern a dark handgun in the hands of a black man than a white man which seems like common sense. Moral of the story is that if you don’t want to get accidentally shot, buy a very brightly colored phone.

  28. Bekka
    April 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    first time i took it, i kept forgetting which key was which and i kept accidentally shooting the wrong person!

    then my computer froze up. :/

    gonna try and take it again…

  29. Tom Comeau
    April 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 625
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:757.6ms
    Black Unarmed:753.24ms
    White Armed:736.28ms
    White Unarmed:757.12ms

    What disturbed me most was how poor my reaction times are. I don’t think there’s any statistically significant difference in my times.

    tc>

  30. Danger Dude
    April 27th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

    drayzel’s comment says something. on average, at a held down button, blacks get shot quicker. it’s not supposed to happen that way now should it?

    Your Score: 620
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:613.4ms
    Black Unarmed:691.2ms
    White Armed:633.84ms
    White Unarmed:688.16ms

  31. Danger Dude
    April 27th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    oops. nevermind. here’s a new set of SHOOT-ALL results:

    Your Score: -500
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:30.76ms
    Black Unarmed:30.92ms
    White Armed:30.44ms
    White Unarmed:30.84ms

    they’re pretty close. except the armed white ones die quickest.

  32. Craig
    April 27th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    I just shot them all,and will let God sort em out.

  33. Abdul Alhazred
    April 27th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    Is it really a racism test?

    It doesn’t simulate real world conditions, even for a cop.

  34. Moses
    April 27th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    While I think it’s critical that people inspect their implicit associations as a way of confronting the things we are quietly in our culture, I don’t think that having a difference in these reaction times indicates you’re a “racist”. How you act determines whether you are racist; what your subconscious tells you is a piece of this but not the whole story.

    Understanding your subconscious is a way of being LESS racist, I think, and I worry that people who see these tests as “am I racist?” tests are less likely to do the important risk of taking them.

  35. Rafael Madeira
    April 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    This is not racism, is social conditioning.

    If you take this test to a location where the perceived threats are different (for example, a neighborhood in Ghana where people from a well-known violent gang wear red shirts) and substitute the pictures of black people (which would be pretty meaningless in Ghana) with the pictures of people of any ethnicity wearing red shirts, the same results will happen, this time with people shooting the ones in red shirts more freely.

    Blame the governments that allow poverty to exist and turn into crime, and the media for taking advantage of this and reinforcing every stereotype for the sake of immediate consumption. Not our highly evolved, completely positive, survival skills.

  36. Dave
    April 27th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    I thought I’d have a little fun by doing a little role playing. First I played the pacifist left-wing weasel, and kept my weapon holstered the whole time by holding the Z button. If we follow the Jimmy Carter example, we need to negotiate with these guys; after all, they have feelings too.

    Your Score: -1750
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:58.4ms
    Black Unarmed:54.4ms
    White Armed:53.28ms
    White Unarmed:56.2ms

    My score sucked, and to add injury to insult, I was shot more times than I’d care to count. And that usually means you’re dead. Hmmm.

    So then I thought I’d play the stereotypical right-wing gun-nut, shooting everybody that got in my way…

    Your Score: -500
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:60.48ms
    Black Unarmed:55.16ms
    White Armed:68.2ms
    White Unarmed:55.72ms

    So I guess the moral of this story is that if you try and talk with thugs, not only does your score suck, but you get filled with lead. But if you shoot first & ask questions later, you end up scoring better than the weasel, and you get the added bonus of staying alive.

    Or maybe this is just a seriously flawed test. Yeah, I think that’s it.

  37. Erik
    April 27th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 570
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:621.96ms
    Black Unarmed:780.96ms
    White Armed:594.76ms
    White Unarmed:711.88ms

  38. flareak
    April 27th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

    here’s the problem with this test:
    it implies that shooting blacks faster means you’re racist against black people.

    i took the test and i shot whites faster. does that mean i’m racist against white people?

    worst test ever.

  39. raymond
    April 27th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 545
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:660.08ms
    Black Unarmed:844.56ms
    White Armed:670.96ms
    White Unarmed:784.48ms

    I get what they are trying ot do but still..

    horrible test

  40. Registration B0rked
    April 27th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    What’s missing from the test is accuracy.

    From a timing perspective, I scored:

    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:624.08ms
    Black Unarmed:668ms
    White Armed:616.8ms
    White Unarmed:632.84ms

    indicating I was quicker to shoot white people than black. However, it’s just as (if not more) relevant to know whether I accurately shot gun-toting maniacs than cellphone-wielding ones. For example, if I were racist I might have shot every black man I saw, bar one, which wouldn’t be apparent from the above statistics.

    I know from a statistical research standpoint the stated test is on one element (gun or no gun?), but for the overall you need to consider all the factors. Does the application track this and report back to the author?

  41. G C
    April 27th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    Your Score: 400
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:628.56ms
    Black Unarmed:690.6ms
    White Armed:619ms
    White Unarmed:656.84ms

    I guess this means I like shooting white people better than black people, but I’m more willing to disassociate white people with guns than black people. Now what if we complicate this a little more by throwing in pictures of Asians and Latinos?

  42. Moon
    April 27th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

    It seems like they are assuming that your instant reaction equals your innate racism. Why would that be?

  43. owl
    April 27th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

    I once heard someone say that racism is like body odor. Everybody has it; some people just have better control over it than others, and some days it’s easier to control than other days.

  44. Josh
    April 27th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

    Honestly I found it difficult to identify dark guns on the black and light guns on the white. Most of the time I have no idea what race I am looking at since I am focused on just the hand and it would be either the cloths were dark or light and not the person.

    Game Over
    Your Score: 350
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:742.48ms
    Black Unarmed:715.28ms
    White Armed:619.56ms
    White Unarmed:659.8ms

    I guess those results mean I am quicker to not shoot and shoot a white person than a black.

  45. Kid
    April 27th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

    Score: 615
    Black Armed: 731.76 ms
    Black Unarmed: 1010.52 ms
    White Armed: 732.72 ms
    White Unarmed: 819.2 ms

    East Asian Male here. While it’s around the same time for me to recognize a gun, it takes time to tell if a cellphone or a wallet is a gun or not. And since most guns are black, it takes me a whole second to tell a civilian. That’s not racism, that’s just the unfortunate color of guns!

  46. Justin
    April 27th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 285
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:563.84ms
    Black Unarmed:642ms
    White Armed:532.08ms
    White Unarmed:788.88ms

    So as a white guy I’m racist against whites?!?!

    I bet if I took this again I would get a completely different result.

  47. John D Giotta
    April 27th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

    Interesting, it took me longer to shot armed or unarmed blacks than whites.

  48. Aargh
    April 27th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    yes, i shot blacks slightly faster than whites, but i also holstered my gun faster with blacks. so there you go.

  49. Evil Pundit
    April 27th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

    To think, there used to be a time when academics actually promoted intelligent thought.

    Those days are long gone.

  50. sam
    April 27th, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    “Would be fun to be able to play but I have no ‘/’ button.”

    How did you type that, then?

  51. ted
    April 27th, 2008 at 8:26 pm

    Your Score: 565
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:600.92ms
    Black Unarmed:716.88ms
    White Armed:660.4ms
    White Unarmed:727.28ms

    Basically even, I’d say. This test is really flawed. You really concentrate on their hands, and you don’t have any time to even notice the colour of their skin. Why all men? This test is sexist.

    This is probably good Starfleet training - they keep beaming people down in front of you.

  52. unknown
    April 27th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    If you focus on the positioning and color of the weapon as apposed to the implied bias on the participants part its clear to me the bias lies in the color and pose of the weapon vs the the contrasting elements that make up the test (i.e. the black weapons vs metallic and the pose and coloring of the participant and clothing) its all about contrast vs visual acuity, not about racism.

    Game Over
    Your Score: 700
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:655.04ms
    Black Unarmed:755ms
    White Armed:653.92ms
    White Unarmed:719.8ms

  53. Dennis
    April 27th, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    This test is so obviously flawed in many ways, while it’s an iteresting concept, (and much of me believes an actual study may provide results akin to this), this test is far from scientific. There are many instances where it’s more a matter of placing a dark object against a dark background and anyone creating a test like this could easily create it to actually come back looking as if the players were bias due to there responses when really they were “led” to these decisions by the test itself. BTW, it was also just some random game without any known affiliation to an accredited school, organization, or criminal justice system or academy…Maybe just some guy that wants to make white people look racist to further his own agenda, sitting in his basement, thinking,”oh I’ll get ‘em looking bad with this”, lol.

  54. PaulVI
    April 27th, 2008 at 9:54 pm

    I read an article way back that brings to mind a name, Bayes. Wikipedia lists Thomas Bayes “(c. 1702 – April 17, 1761) a British mathematician and Presbyterian minister…”

    The article (or commentary?) proposed that such judgments supposedly tested in the above experiment may not be racism but, instead, “Bayesian” judgments. To wit:

    1. You are walking down a sidewalk and you see a 60 year-old black man coming your way. If you cross the street to the other sidewalk, you are a racist.

    2. You are walking down a sidewalk and you see a 40 year-old black woman coming your way. If you cross the street to the other sidewalk, you are a racist.

    3. You are walking down a sidewalk and you see a 20 year-old black man coming your way. If you cross the street to the other sidewalk, >>> it is possible that you are not displaying racism but Bayesian thinking.

    The idea is that basing decisions on data of who are the predominant perpetrators of violent crime as opposed to basing them on the race of a person without concern for any further consideration of any data or critical thinking, marks the difference between racism and Bayesian thinking in this example.

    It may well be that the racism has occurred much earlier in the process: is it a media slant, whether conscious or not?

  55. BlessedBlogger
    April 27th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

    According to my test results I’m a racist who hates white men. I’m so Irish I’m not even white, I’m translucent and I don’t think I have any particular bias towards any racial group. The trouble I had with the test was that it was often very difficult for me to tell what the men were holding since the pictures were very small (the portion holding the item at least) and the colors were often very similar. Also, sometimes men holding cell phones seemed like they might be holding guns because some of the phones were very small and the antenna portion was fat and looked a bit like the barrel of a gun. I don’t think this is a terribly realizable test. All it indicates to me is that the folks giving the test weren’t very good at designing it.

  56. Mizu
    April 27th, 2008 at 10:02 pm

    Your Score: 535
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:645.96ms
    Black Unarmed:709.96ms
    White Armed:609.12ms
    White Unarmed:744.64ms

    Funnily enough, mine seems to be the opposite. I was more focused on the gun than not, but I found the gun/regular object more difficult to see when it was a white man holding it, for some reason.

    I wonder, though, why are none of these people women? Is the game sexist?

  57. Brian
    April 27th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 560
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:706.52ms
    Black Unarmed:785ms
    White Armed:759.84ms
    White Unarmed:882.8ms

  58. Jacoby87
    April 27th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    Everyone knows that the only way to not be racist is to join my facebook group. Which is called “I’m Not Racist”.

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2222529991

  59. Tim
    April 27th, 2008 at 10:41 pm

    I found that attire seemed to affect my reaction the most. Suit and tie got a long look. I’d be nice to see the test done recording that as a variable also.

  60. leongsoon
    April 27th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    FIRST TIME
    Your Score: 310
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:668.6ms
    Black Unarmed:815.68ms
    White Armed:619.36ms
    White Unarmed:722.76ms

    SECOND TIME
    Your Score: 375
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:602.08ms
    Black Unarmed:730.4ms
    White Armed:612.08ms
    White Unarmed:666.12ms

    So I’m racist too? Don’t think so, probably because it’s easier to differentiate dark coloured mobile phones n wallets from guns in the hands of a white, easy as that.

  61. Scrowed
    April 27th, 2008 at 11:07 pm

    Racism actually has a lot to do with priming. So for example if you sat for a couple hours watching Obama and really liked what he had to say and then went and took the test again you wouldn’t shoot black people as quickly, you might even shoot white people faster. (Depending on what you think of Hilary Clinton I guess ;)

  62. DaMamaJama
    April 27th, 2008 at 11:38 pm

    Game Over
    Your Score: 375
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:591.84ms
    Black Unarmed:727.6ms
    White Armed:599.24ms
    White Unarmed:674.08ms

    I think I’m just a bad shot.

  63. bunyip
    April 28th, 2008 at 12:29 am

    I didn’t notice what colour the shooters were but I found it much harder to spot and make a decision about an object - phone or gun (or coke can or wallet) if it was the same colour as the hand that held it.

    So I was slow with silver guns or phones in white hands and black wallets, phones or guns in black hands. Where is the analysis of this reaction time. In fact I got shot a couple of times by white guys with silver guns, and I shot a few white guys with black phones.

    Also some of the backgrounds made it hard to spot an object. I also found it a bit hard to “shoot” someone who was pointing the gun at the ground.

    And the web connection was very very slow…

  64. Lore
    April 28th, 2008 at 12:59 am

    Your Score: 465
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:625.16ms
    Black Unarmed:741.96ms
    White Armed:669.48ms
    White Unarmed:706.16ms

    I don’t even know what my score means.

  65. su.wei
    April 28th, 2008 at 1:23 am

    definetly a flawed test. but interesting. after the first few people i stopped looking at the person and just looked for the gun/cell phone.

    i noticed in some pictures it was harder to see the object.

  66. anathema
    April 28th, 2008 at 1:32 am

    I totally fail at this. I forgot what button to push, I couldn’t see their hands before I got shot myself, and every time I didn’t shoot an innocent was completely by luck. This just went too fast for me.

  67. LisaL
    April 28th, 2008 at 2:59 am

    Interesting test, but very flawed.
    I couldn’t tell a few times if the person was holding a gun or phone or whatever else they were holding. SOmetimes b/c of the way they were holding it, sometimes b/c of the background and the item blending in to that or the person’s clothing.
    I didn’t even notice skin color b/c I was trying too dang hard to tell what they were holding.

    I shot a few of the good guys and let go a few of the bad ones :P heh

  68. cuimhne
    April 28th, 2008 at 6:52 am

    Game Over
    Your Score: 565
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:757.24ms
    Black Unarmed:809.28ms
    White Armed:745.28ms
    White Unarmed:781.36ms

    I got shot twice but I didn’t shoot anyone by mistake. And look at that, I reacted to the armed white guys faster!

  69. Alannah
    April 28th, 2008 at 7:29 am

    As soon as I finished shooting people my computer crapped out, so I didn’t get my score. BTW, why do you get more points for shooting the correct person, and less points for *not* shooting the correct person. The values of the people at U of C scare me.

  70. DanO
    April 28th, 2008 at 7:30 am

    it’s hard to tell what the people are holding. i think i learned that i shouldn’t shoot anyone, instead of apparent racism.

  71. PaulD
    April 28th, 2008 at 8:07 am

    I don’t have a racist bone in my body and came up with similar reaction times even though in most pictures I didn’t register the skin color, only looked for the weapon.

    I found some pictures were really hard to make out the shape of the object due to the background the object was against. That, for me, had much more to do with analysis/reaction time than any other factor.

    I would say the test is flawed, although it’s a nice idea.

  72. Pol x
    April 28th, 2008 at 8:17 am

    Game Over
    Your Score: -1740
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:226.8ms
    Black Unarmed:318.2ms
    White Armed:200.84ms
    White Unarmed:222ms

    just held down the holster button.

    I’m not going to even dignify this ass bung test with any worth at all.

    How mad yank can you get, Who’d you shoot first?

    Answer, NO ONE ya dummy, you shoot no one.

  73. defiepilex
    April 28th, 2008 at 9:06 am

    Game Over
    Your Score: 615
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:5049.84ms
    Black Unarmed:745.76ms
    White Armed:636.12ms
    White Unarmed:686.12ms

    no idea how i got 5049.84ms on Black Armed. sounds a little too high.

  74. sparge
    April 28th, 2008 at 9:26 am

    Wow, look at all these concerns that these researchers — who have made a career out of designing experiments and securing funding (i.e. justifying to funding agencies) for them — forgot to account for when they designed the test! Good thing they have Neatorama readers to set them straight…

    But seriously: for those of you calling the test “flawed”, did you even stop to think about what it’s really doing? It’s not trying to tell you you’re racist. (In fact, looking at the results on a person-by-person basis is pointless; I’m sure they are much more interested in the statistics of hundreds or thousands of people.)

    Instead, it’s trying to measure whether or not you have been subconsciously conditioned to perceive blacks as more threatening. That’s why they used a variety of positions, settings, gun colors, etc. — to statistically remove any biases that may be caused by these things. It’s why cell-phones were sometimes held in threatening ways, to get rid of any biases you might have based on the way things are held. That’s also why no women were used — why complicate the results any more than necessary?

    Is it realistic? Of course not. Reality has a way of complicating things. If it were possible to get the results they seek from realistic situations, they would simply study data from police reports or something.

    Is it perfect? Again, no. Some of the points brought up by commenters here are valid. I’m sure the published study will acknowledge these issues as a potential source of error. But to insult the study, the people behind it, and even all of academia (see Evil Pundit) based on going through the subject’s end of it a single time is ridiculous.

  75. Oomi
    April 28th, 2008 at 10:49 am

    Your Score: 440
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:578.12ms
    Black Unarmed:1061.72ms
    White Armed:594.04ms
    White Unarmed:847.56ms

  76. gl3nk
    April 28th, 2008 at 11:17 am

    Where I live, people are likly to be shot by a black man with a gun than a white man. So, I’d be far more cautious when seeing a black man with a gun. That dosn’t make me a racist, albeit idiots who make tests like this would want me to believe I am.

  77. PotatoCouch
    April 28th, 2008 at 11:57 am

    You should have split this post so before you take the test, you don’t see the results. I was going to take it but since i read the results, I think that would mess with my score.

  78. whantmoore
    April 28th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Before I take this test I was reading the data and in general mostly blacks were shot weather unarmed or not. Since I live in NYC there was a trail of several police offers some of them being black shot and killed a unarmed man and injured several of his friends. In saying that I am sure some people of color(me being one of them)the scores would be some what different here in NYC

  79. Beth
    April 28th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Your score: 25
    Average reaction time:
    Black armed:844.76ms
    Black unarmed: 1126.36ms
    White armed:987.48ms
    White unarmed:1003.84ms

    Apparently I am very slow. So slow that by the time I found their hand and identified what was in it, I didn’t have time to look at their faces. They could’ve been blue for all I knew!

    That being said, the results show I’m not racist, right? (white female)

    Maybe I’ll change my contacts and take it again…

  80. Susan from UK web developers
    April 28th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:883.8ms
    Black Unarmed:1050.88ms
    White Armed:894.2ms
    White Unarmed:1083.72ms
    It was a very hard test, I hate guns.
    So this means I am a racist (I’m white, actually very white and almost nothing helps:-( )? It is so strange… by the way I recognized, that blacks with guns came after the whites with guns. So when I saw a white-gun, I was thinking what to press, but when right after then came a black with gun I knew much faster which button I should press, so the reaction was faster… So I do not know if I can believe to this…

  81. astrodex
    April 28th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    The test seemed like it could be biased although it is hard to tell while attempting to rush through. Some of the subjects did not appear to be “black” or “white.” Who determined the classifications? Some objects were unclear against the background while some were quite obvious. Was this equal between the two racial distinctions? All this proves is that we (the test author included) still feel that skin color is a valid way of separating ourselves. Even disregarding that within their own test there are many subjects who could easily be classified as both or neither option.

  82. Jourdan
    April 28th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    Your Score: 335
    Average reaction time:
    Black Armed:767.12ms
    Black Unarmed:828.12ms
    White Armed:758.6ms
    White Unarmed:838.92ms

    I think I can just assume I’d be dead. :)

    Fastest on armed whites and slowest on unarmed whites.

    I’m not sure how to read this. And I think the amount of false positives might be a better indicator than anything else.

  83. CheeseDuck
    April 28th, 2008 at 7:53 pm

    So WHY did I lose points for holstering my gun too slow?

  84. AnUnSi
    April 28th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    This is RIDICULOUS! The recent media intoxication with race (inspired by B. Obama and his ex-pastor) — and exacerbated by other sickos (such as A. Sharpton) is just depressing. It’s sad to see that some bloggers are just as unencumbered by brain power as the ultra-left-wing reporters.

    The fact is that there is no shame, no bias, no racism … involved in shooting so-called “blacks” more or more quickly than so-called “whites.” It is not done out of hatred, but out of wisdom and a sense of self-preservation. Anyone with a lick of sense knows that an average “black” man is FAR more likely to be a perpetrator of a violent crime than an average “white” man. It’s only natural to use self-defense against him with less hesitation.

    Grow up, people!

  85. Orionriver
    April 29th, 2008 at 1:52 am

    This test is flawed in a number of ways, The most obvious of which is hand association. By binding one hand to white, and the other to black, there will be a startling upset in the results based upon hand-preference. For instance, I was faster to shoot whites than blacks, when I know I have at least some racist preference towards whites. This is because I am left-handed, skewing the results. There is a better test at:

    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html

    This test switches hands, so as to mitigate the effects of hand preference, and uses more reasonable gauging methods; they test the speed of associations between blacks and whites and good and bad words. Honestly, now that I think about it, this test deserves to be posted.

    There is also an extensive battery of other tests for those of you inclined to investigate.

  86. Hirudin
    April 29th, 2008 at 6:31 am

    I gave whites 1 hundredth of a second longer than blacks. I got shot by one black person, and killed an innocent white person.

    I stopped reading after the 10th comment or so, but I’m not sure this is a 100%, end-all, foolproof, scientifically accurate test of whether someone is racist or not…

    Also, the only thing this showed to me is that my face really starts to itch when I cannot scratch it. :)

  87. kint
    May 6th, 2008 at 12:48 am

    I shot whites 0.579 seconds and blacks .624 seconds… for both it was nearly .1 seconds more to holster. But I think that’s due to being right handed, and the z being on the left. I agree with earlier comments that it had more to do with contrast of what was surrounding the object/gun.

  88. Charlie
    May 9th, 2008 at 3:42 am

    THIS TEST IS RIGGED!!!!!

    I took the test with the intention of finding out if it would allow me to shoot people indiscriminately and to continue to do so.

    So I pressed on the button rapid-fire. I never even saw any of the pictures of the people pop up, I only saw backgrounds. Yet it still stated that I waited longer for white people than for black people.

    I tried it over again. Same result.

    Now I started to wonder.

    Third time… same.
    Fourth time… same.
    Fifth time… same.

    I can buy it happening two or even three times in a row. But not five. This thing is rigged.

  89. person
    January 10th, 2009 at 4:11 pm

    i’m white.
    i reacted to whites quicker, armed or not.
    i like to think i’m not racist.
    the confimation is weird.
    does it mean anything?

  90. Pandu
    May 19th, 2009 at 11:39 pm

    Can’t really be that accurate, especially if you know it’s a racism-related test beforehand. There are other factors - intentionally or unintentionally, it may be easier/harder to see the white/black people’s guns/phones/etc.


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