What is racism? The definition given by Merriam Webster's dictionary is “the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and abilities and that racial difference produces an intrinsic superiority of a particular race”. Just from the definition alone we can see that racism and prejudice are horrible, erroneous errors in a person's thinking that no one would, or should, be proud to admit to having such feelings. Is it true, however, that race or prejudicial feelings are not taken into consideration at all by these people who claim to have no prejudice against those of another race or group? A person may display signs of modern racism in which they outwardly display and act as if they are an unprejudiced person, while inwardly they have negative prejudicial attitudes. Is there a way to actually find out if a person has these types of feelings? This is one of the ideas behind the Implicit Association Test. The creation of the Implicit Association Test was to find out if there is a way to determine whether it is possible to actually know the internal feelings someone has, but may not be able or willing to report. It could also be a way for someone to determine whether their explicit attitudes align with their implicit attitudes and be able to get to know themselves a little better than before. Before taking the tests, I decided which four I thought were most relevant to me. I chose one based on my religious preferences because I consider myself a religious person and have respect and interest in religious teachings. Two of the tests I chose were based on the fact that I am part, however slightly, of that race; The Asian and Native American IAT. The fourth and final test I chose was the Weapons IAT and I made it clear… halfway through the paper… I cannot knowingly endorse those same values. If a person has an explicit negative view towards a specific group or harbors prejudicial feelings, their implicit attitude would most likely be the same as well. In turn, someone holding these views would have a biased opinion against said group or person and would discriminate against someone from said group for no reason other than that they are part of the group. Taking an implicit association test may not be something we would want to base any serious decision on; it is a useful tool to get to know ourselves better. By realizing that we may unconsciously hold views that we are not proud of, we can inoculate ourselves and make a personal change for the better. References Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D., & Akert, R.M. (2013). Social psychology (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.