The first bias that I decided to test was
my biases around fat individuals and thin. Going into the test I expected that
I would have a bias against those that are severely overweight. After completing
the test I was given a result of moderate automatic preferences for thin individuals
over fat. Looking at my past and some of the ideas that I have around weight
support and reinforce this bias, when I was in high school do to my own
inactivity and disregard for my body I gained a large amount of weight, at my
heaviest I weighed 240 pounds, I hit a point where I had to change and I did, I
lost 50 pounds. For me there’s no real excuse for not getting your weight and
health under control because it’s totally within your ability to control, I
also find thin people to be more sexually attractive, I don’t think there’s
anything wrong with that. It’s natural to select more fit and healthy partners.
So as far as my bias against fat individuals I don’t see anything wrong with it
as long as I don’t disqualify people based only on their weight.
The next bias test that I took was preference
towards gays vs straights, I expected going into this to be neutral do to the fact
that I have a number of gay friends and I work down in the short north which
has a large number of gay men and women, however after the test I found out
that I actually have a slight preference for straight over gay. When looking at
these results I guess I can believe that I’m straight I don’t have any gay relatives
and didn’t have any gay friends until my 20s so I guess I can still have some unconscious
biases from my early childhood.
Finally the last bias that I looked at
was race primarily white vs black. My results stated that I have a moderate
preference for Caucasian vs African American. I don’t see any surprise in these
findings I come from a small rural area that was predominantly white and had a
general distrusts and racial stigma against African Americans, I myself didn’t escape
that environment without picking up a number of racial biases, those biases do
to my focus have been reinforced over time.
In conclusion I found the tests that we
conducted on are biases to be very interesting and gave a grate insight into
are unconscious minds.
Hi Nicholas! I just took the weight quiz as well and did have a slight bias toward thin people as well. I really agree with the fact that you have no excuse not to take care of yourself and keep your weight under control because no one can control it but ourselves. I believe if you put your mind to it and truly want to change, anyone can lose weight. Its awesome that you lost 50 lbs in high school, that truly says a lot about you!
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