Madison Ellsworth
I decided to take the Harvard Implicit Bias test on body weight. I went with this topic because body weight has been such a big topic in our media recently. Wanting to push body standards to be more inclusive has been a priority for so many companies and customers. Growing up I was considered to have a very athletic build but never “skinny”. This was hard for me because skinny was considered pretty, if you were not skinny you were not pretty in peoples eyes. Growing up I have the same athletic build but I have come to love my body no matter what.
I have noticed that ads and other media outlets have made a conscious effort these past year or so to create more inclusive sizes and advertisements. But similar to other topics I wonder- what is their goal is to actual include everyone and make everyone feel welcomed and supported or is to keep up with other brands.
TEST
During my Harvard Test I went in with a very open mind. I consider myself to be very loving of all shapes and sizes. But as we learned in our class and lecture we have implicit bias. Implicit bias’ can be changed and are not necessarily what people outwardly say but they are your inner thoughts based off how you were raised, the media outlets you listen and watch, and the culture you surround yourself around. When I took my test my results were somewhat shocking and embarrassing. I scored 31% for favoring thin people over thick people. The reason for this is because I was quicker to respond to questions that had positive words with thinner people and negative words with thicker people. I would consider this to be an implicit bias. I do not outwardly consider thick people to be negative but because I have grown up in a society that does that is how my mind correlates the two.
I am completely aware of implicit bias and how that effects my thought process and decision making. Some people however, are not as aware as myself. Because of this implicit bias can be a huge factor in causing discrimination. I think a class or program should be required during the hiring process to ensure people are aware of their implicit bias’. Additionally, I do not think people should be aware of applicants name, gender, or/and what they look like. All of these things normally do not affect ones job but do effect if they receive a job or not.
