I thought readers might be interested in some correspondence that has followed up on my earlier post on Project Implicit. One person wrote (edited):
Perhaps your knee-jerk reaction was not to the Implicit Association Test but to
the possibility that you are not always consciously in control of your beliefs and behaviors. If that is the case, then I am sorry to inform you that decades of research in neuroscience and psychology demonstrates that you are, in fact, in control of very little of your mental life. In fact, you’re not even aware of most of it, and that includes your goals, motivations, and attitudes.
Now if this an accurate statement of the importance of subconscious reasoning (other correspondents did not state the position so strongly but made the same general points), it would seem to raise some pretty thorny questions. In particular, if this is true, it seems to necessarily imply that the primary reason why a person believes in the finding of the Implicit Association Test and the overwhelming importance of subconscious reasoning is primarily because there is something in that particular person’s subconscious that makes them believe this theory as opposed to other competing theories. And, it would seem to follow, the reason why I am skeptical of some of the theory’s more extravagant claims about what it can explain regarding personal beliefs and behaviors (such as my preference for Bill versus Hillary Clinton) is primarily because of something in my subconscious as well. In short, if the theory itself is correct, then one’s belief about the validity of the theory itself must be the result of the same subconscious reasoning processes that it purports to explain. And if it is the case that our views on the usefulness of Project Implicit are little more than a reflection of our subconscious, wouldn’t it be pointless to have a conversation trying to persuade me to use my conscious mind to revise my supposed subconsciously-biased negative opinion of Project Implicit itself? The fact that the correspondent took the time to write to me (which I always appreciate, by the way, although I would prefer if you would refrain from ad hominem attacks in your emails) suggests that she (subconsciously perhaps?) recognizes the limitations of her own theory.
As I said earlier, it seems much more plausible to me that there are some of our views and opinions that are a reflection of subconscious and others that overwhelmingly reflect the influence of our conscious minds and that we don’t want to try to claim too much for either. Bill versus Hillary and Church versus State (the two tests I took) seem to me to fall much more on the conscious side of the line, and one suspects that the reason those modules are in there is so that Project Implicit can try to demonstrate just how broad its claims can reach. And to try get from subconscious attitudes to an explanation of many aspects of behavior and eventually large-scale social policy recommendations (as implied by the article in the Washington Post) seems like an extraordinary stretch to me.
Perhaps the architects of the Implicit Association Test should develop a new module that would be able to predict individual’s views on the usefulness of the Implicit Association Test. If they find that individual’s beliefs about the usefulness and explanatory power of the test itself are primarily a reflection of individual subconscious attitudes, then that would be some excellent supportive evidence for their theory. On the other hand, I wouldn’t expect to see this test being run anytime soon.
Update:
Replies to this post and my original update can be found here and here for anyone who is interested. JohnHays.net agrees with me and concludes: “If the Implicit Project can be called science, then it is junk science. Not only is the methodology ridiculous, but the underlying premise behind each test I took was filled with biases that cannot be empirically proven.” Another interesting question dealing with the falsifiability of the hypothesis is posed here.
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