The test, developed by a UK psychologist, aims to help employers screen candidates for racism, homophobia or prejudice against disabled people.

Based on associative theory, the test attempts to measure our unconscious biases.

While discrimination needs a solution, there are concerns that the test will penalize those who have prejudicial beliefs or feelings, but who nevertheless manage to surmount these and act within the law.

The test could have value as a way of raising the topic of prejudice in the personnel development context - ie highlighting a concern of which the individual might well not be aware and equipping them with strategies for self-management. Identifying prejudice also opens the way to bridging the knowledge gap that underpins it through, for example, empathic experiences.

But as a recruitment tool? Sounds Orwellian to me, but then I'm a white male.

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