Are you racist, sexist, sizeist? Take a test and find out

Sir Keir Starmer urged his party to undergo unconscious bias training but can it help us understand our own prejudices or is it just a corporate sticking plaster to cover up festering wounds? Steve Boggan reports

Implicit association tests can help determine bias (Social Beings)

I have just taken a test designed to probe the unconscious prejudices I harbour in the dark recesses of my mind and I’m feeling ashamed as I look at the results. They say I’m a bit racist. And a bit sexist. And somewhat homophobic. And my attitude towards overweight people could be better. My only consolation in putting this out there is that I’m not the only one. You’re probably a bit racist too, and perhaps a little homophobic and generally not as embracing as you could be of people who are different from you. We all are. It’s a natural – but unwelcome – trait in us and it’s called “unconscious bias”.

The principle of unconscious bias was catapulted into the public consciousness this month when Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted the Party’s MPs and peers to undergo training to counter it. And, “leading from the top”, he would take the training first. He made his promise during a phone-in to LBC when a caller challenged him on what she saw as less than fulsome support for the Black Lives Matter movement. He had said it represented a “moment”, which might have given the impression that he felt it would pass.

“What I was saying,” he countered, “is that Black Lives Matter needs to be a moment, and I meant a defining moment and a turning point. I didn’t mean a fleeting moment.”