Homework 1 / 49482023 Otto Hung

Homework 1 / 49482023 Otto Hung

1. Experiences or Thoughts about Project Implicit

After doing the Implicit Association Test (IAT) on Age, I found that the test is reliable only when the testee chose to do it in his or her native language. This was how I discovered.
I browsed Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/) for about 2 hours, knowing this test is a research on people's implicit attitudes on various issues such as sexuality, race, weight, religion etc. I selected the age section which tests our preference for young and old both in English and Chinese, and the result scared me because it was beyond my expectation. I got the result that I slightly prefer the old over the young, which is totally different from the same test in Chinese. The test in Chinese said that I prefer the young to the old. Therefore, I did the Chinese and English sections again. In Chinese, the answer was still the same: I prefer the young to the old, while the English one said I have little preference between the young and the old.
Hence, we can see that the results in Chinese and English are totally different, but the Chinese one is much more reliable. I think this is because languages may affect testee's performance. The testee must be familiar with the language in which the test is taken. That way, when he does the test, he can respond his implicit attitude more spontaneously. This is why IAT is translated into so many languages in order to reflect more accurately testee's attitudes on numerous subjects.

2. Ethical Choices: Because of your excellent communication skills, your boss always asks you to write his reports for him. But when the CEO compliments him on his logical organization and clear writing style, your boss responds as if he'd written all those reports himself. What kind of ethical choices does this represent? What can you do in this situation? Briefly explain your solution and your reasoning.

The situation above is an ethical dilemma, which means someone encounters two ethical alternatives, one is to keep silent about the boss's unethical behavior, and the other is to speak it out. Guys with strong sense of justice may think that the fault is with the boss, so they will report to the CEO without thinking twice. However, as far as I am concerned, I think it is not that easy for me because it is related to my job. If I tell others, my boss may fire me; otherwise, it is unethical and I will still be oppressed. For me, the solution would be to express my difficulty to my boss implicitly and not do his reports for him again, instead of pointing out what he did was wrong. If my boss keeps doing this, I will consult my coworkers for a solution. This way, we can brainstorm a good solution to solve it, and also avoid being fired without my coworker's knowing of the real truth behind.