Psychometric testing is already widely used by employers and recruiters, particularly in recruitment and promotion decisions and it has proved to be an invaluable tool. A new type of psychometric, ’Implicitly’ licensed by psychologists Hogrefe, is a series of eight tests that establish to which extent the person taking the test is instinctively racist, sexist, homophobic or biased against disabled or old people.

The tests work by presenting the sitter with pictures of people, which they must match with “good” or “bad” words as they appear in quick succession. The sitter’s prejudices are shown by how long they take to accomplish the task correctly, and how many mistakes they made.

Dr Pete Jones , the Research Director at Shire Professional chartered psychologists, developers of ‘Implicitly’, said that everyone has “people preferences” and that being aware of them is vital for individuals and employers. Jones says, “Knowing where my prejudices lie gives me an advantage. If I’m a manager and I’ve been told that I have a prejudice against, say, Asian people, then the next time I’ve got an Asian job candidate in front of me then I’m going to challenge my own decisions”.

Jane Amphlett of Law Firm Finers Stepeners Innocent says that the tests may create traps for employers. This type of psychometric test could be indirectly discriminatory if people of different cultures, age groups or sex approach them differently and if recruitment and promotion decisions are then made on the basis of the results. The employer would be required to demonstrate that the test is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. To avoid discrimination in the workplace may be the aim, but it would need to be proved by the employer that the testing did just that.

Another consideration is Data Protection. Consent will need to be obtained from the individual to take the test and keep the results on file. Thought should also be given to how the test results are fed back to the individual and where the results are stored.

Malcom Gladwell, author of ‘Blink’ has taken a similar test in the US – The Race IAT (Implicit Association Test). The test measures the strength of association we have about pairs of ideas that we have already in our minds – compared to those pairs which are unfamiliar to us. The test is completed on computer and the time it takes for the responses to be recorded demonstrates the strength of the association. Gladwell, whose mother is Jamaican and father white, was rated as having ‘moderate automatic preference for whites’. Gladwell explains this by saying that we have conscious and unconscious attitudes. The conscious attitude is what we choose to believe and which we use to direct our behaviour. Our unconscious attitude can be totally incompatible with our conscious attitude. Most of the test results in the US showed, like Gladwell, that they had a stronger association with the dominant white group. Which is not surprising when you consider the strong cultural messages given every day associating white with good. 50,000 African Americans who had taken the test, like Gladwell, had stronger associations with whites than blacks. So what does this prove?

THE IAT like ‘Implicitly’ is an abstract measure of attitudes. It’s a predictor of how we react in certain types of spontaneous situations. We may not be aware of how we are behaving with situations or people that are unfamiliar to us and this type of test gives some measure to how closely or not we associate ourselves with the unfamiliar group.

A structured selection process based around the skills required for the job is one of the best predictors of successful candidates. Psychometric testing based on personality or abilities can give you further insight into candidates’ capabilities to perform a role. In our view, together with references this should be all the information you need.