Test Unconscious Mind

In the Personality Poker book, we gave you information about our Implicit Association Test (IAT).

The IAT was developed by Harvard to test “unconscious” or implicit beliefs and biases. You can learn more about it from my blog entry on the topic. In that article you will also see a link to other tests Harvard developed.

We hired a professor from the Harvard psychology department to develop an IAT for personality testing. It is a bit more complicated than some of the other IAT tests, as we need to test multiple dimensions of personality, not just a single bias. So be forewarned, it might take as long as 30 minutes. And you need to complete it in one sitting.

Here’s how it works.

Most tests ask for your preferences. There are no right or wrong answers. With this, there is a right answer and a wrong answer. And you are being timed. You need to go as fast as possible, while also trying to be as accurate as possible. I won’t get into the theory here, but it is interesting and proven to be quite accurate.

In the left and right corners of the screen will be a word or words. For example, the left corner might say “Good” and the right corner “Bad.” You will then be shown a word in the middle. If it is a good word like “smile” or “happy,” you click the “e” key on your keyboard. If it a bad word, like “miserable” or “sad,” you click the “i” key. If you get it wrong, you must correct you answer to continue. Remember, speed and accuracy matter!

After good/bad, you’ll be asked to do the same thing with flowers and insects.

After doing single words for a while, you will eventually be given two words in each corner. For example, “Good” and “Flower” in the upper left corner with “Bad” and “Insect” in the upper right. A word will appear in the middle that is either a good or bad word, or a flower or an insect. You must click the appropriate “e” or “i” key. Then they words will be switched around. Before to carefully read the words in the upper right/left corners before proceeding.

Personality Poker Version

After a warm-up round with flowers and insects, you will move into the personality test. The first sets of words will be related to “me” and “not me.” Then you will be given words related personality styles. In Personality Poker there are four primary styles/suits:

1. Clubs – these individual like plans and action
2. Diamonds – these individuals like ideas and experiences
3. Spades – these individuals like facts and principles
4. Hearts – these individuals like people and relationships

You will go through a series of rounds. The first round will compare your preference for the club style versus the diamond style (the opposites in Personality Poker). The second round will compare your preference for the spade style versus the heart style (again opposites). The final round will compare the preferred styles of the first two rounds.

Finally, you will be asked some “explicit” questions. That is, you will be asked to rate words by how you think they are most like you are a conscious level. Please take the entire test until it says you are finished.

Rules to Participate

By downloading the attached file, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions:

1. You will not share the “experiment file” with anyone else. However you can feel free to send a link to this page to anyone you think that would be interested in taking this IAT.
2. You will (optionally) send the “dat” file to us via email after taking the test. This will help us compare explicit and implicit beliefs. This is being used for an ongoing research effort.
3. You agree not to sue me for damages if your head explodes after taking this test!

How to Install

This version is not web based. You must first download a free piece of software from the internet and then download another file from this site.

• Go to www.millisecond.com and download a trial version of Inquisit 3.0. Install the software and sign up for the free trial.
• Next, download the experiment file to your desktop. To do this, right click and “save target as” or “save link as” (depending on if you are using IE or Firefox)
• Double-click on this experiment file from your desktop. This should launch the application.
• You’ll be asked to enter a subject number (only numerical entries are allowed). Type in any number and get started. Each person who takes it should use a different subject. DO NOT use the same number twice.
• When you are done, the program will create an iat091117.dat on your desktop
• We request that you email the iat091117.dat file to info@24-7innovation.com.

Contact us if you have any questions.