Touchy Subjects
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the Exhausted Minority were two things that Jesse Singal referred to while talking to Joe Rogan on his podcast. I hadn’t come across either of them before, so I decided to look into them. Before researching two things that don’t seem to be related, let me explain who Jesse Singal is. He’s a freelance journalist who addresses issues that most journalists shy away from. In 2018 he wrote an article for the Atlantic that discussed the challenges around raising a trans child and this year he published a book called; The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills. I haven’t read The Quick Fix yet, but I’m sure it will be just as interesting as his discussion with Joe and his Atlantic article. He is willing to explore topics that people struggle to speak about and he isn’t shying away from issues with a strong sense of culture surrounding them.
The first thing mentioned by Jesse that I hadn’t heard of was the IAT. He did mention that he didn’t feel like it was very accurate, but even that sentence didn’t make sense to me as I had no idea what he was talking about. After looking it up I found that the IAT is a set of tests/studies run by a non-profit organization called Project Implicit out of Harvard University. It’s an international collaboration of researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition. The study is several tests that gauge your preconceived biases toward a minority. They have IAT’s for Arab-Muslim, Weight, Asian American, Gender – Career, Race, Sexuality, Religion, Gender – Science, Weapons, Transgender, Disability, Age and Skin-tone prejudices.
I decided to do the sexuality IAT to see what the test was like and whether it was accurate. You first have to answer a few questions about yourself to determine which demographic you belong to. Then they ask a few questions about how you feel towards gay and straight people and whether you feel more comfortable with one or the other. You’re finally asked to put words relating to either ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ in their correct categories by pressing keys on your keyboard. These words are mixed with positive and negative words and each iteration of the test has you group the words either with positive or negative words. For example, one section could be grouping the ‘good’ words and ‘gay’ words together and the ‘bad’ and ‘straight’ words together. The idea of the test is to see how fast you react to all the different combinations of groupings.
This helps determine whether you have some sort of bias towards a certain group. This might help with determining prejudice, but I see where Jesse was coming from. He didn’t mention why the IAT may be inaccurate, but I feel like there are a few reasons. Anyone doing the test knows it is a test about prejudice, and they don’t want to appear so. This means that they might not answer instinctively and as quickly as possible as the test requires. People could also answer the questions about how they feel towards a marginalised group inaccurately because not many people openly admit to these prejudices. These flaws could skew the data and not give an accurate reflection of someone’s actual prejudice.
The second term I wasn’t familiar with was the Exhausted Minority. This term applies to American politics, but the idea is relevant to the rest of the world too. The Exhausted Majority is the majority (two-thirds) of the American population that aren’t solely on one political side or the other. As we know there are the Democrats and Republicans, and it is assumed that you are either one or the other. But the study by The Hidden Tribes of America found that most people’s political views are on a spectrum.
The Hidden Tribes of America is a year-long project launched by More in Common in late 2018 to better understand the forces that drive political polarization and tribalism in the United States today, and to galvanize efforts to address them. The Hidden Tribes of America study forms the initial phase of the project.
While most of their views differ to some degree, they are united in a few important ways:
They are fed up with the polarization plaguing the American government and society
They are often forgotten in the public discourse, overlooked because their voices are seldom heard
They are flexible in their views, willing to endorse different policies according to the precise situation rather than sticking ideologically to a single set of beliefs
They believe we can find common ground
The Exhausted Majority is frustrated with these polarizing views and political tactics to segregate the country. They are more open to finding a middle ground and are happy to work with people with different views. The news and politicians have created an ‘us vs them’ environment where people feel like they need to pick aside. This obviously isn’t the case and there doesn’t need to be an explicit divide.
The report by The Hidden Tribes of America points out detailed reasons for the divide. They did research on Immigration impact, white privilege, sexual harassment and Islamophobia and there is almost exactly a 50/50 split on all of these issues. It explains how America got to where it is and the common ground that can be used to create a better future for everyone.
It turns out the two points mentioned by Jesse Singal are linked. The IAT tests for prejudice on issues that many people may have a polarising view of. I think the main point to take out of this is that it doesn’t have to be so black and white. There is a middle ground where conversation can take place and we can begin to understand why some people have such a different view from ourselves. That is what Jesse Singal is doing. He is addressing and speaking about these difficult issues that seem to divide us. A little more open and compassionate discussion can go a long way.