Decoupling the Conflicting Evaluative Meanings in Automatically Activated Race-Based Associations

Implicit measures of attitudes have classically focused on the association between a social group and generalized valence, but debate exists surrounding how these associations arise and what they can tell us about beliefs and attitudes. Here, we suggest that representations of oppression, which relate positively to implicitly measured prejudice but negatively to explicitly measured prejudice, can serve to decrease the predictive validity of implicit measures through statistical suppression. We had participants complete a Black-White implicit association test (IAT) and an IAT measuring representations of oppression, and find that oppression-related representations statistically suppress the relation between IAT scores and explicit attitudes, such that accounting for these representations increases the total amount of variance explained by implicit measures. We discuss the implications of this work both for practical matters around use of the IAT and for theoretical debates on the conceptualization of valence in implicit attitudes.

"But what do you really think?" Nurses' contrasting explicit and implicit attitudes towards people with disabilities using the implicit association test

AIMS

To investigate how nurses' implicit and explicit attitudes towards people with disabilities (PWD) compare to (1) other healthcare providers and (2) non-healthcare providers.

METHOD

We present an analysis of secondary data from the publicly available disability Implicit Association Test (IAT). We compare the explicit and implicit attitudes towards PWD for (1) nurses (n = 24,545), (2) other healthcare providers (n = 57,818) and (3) non-healthcare providers (n = 547,966) for a total of 630,238 respondents, between 2006 and 2021.

DATA SOURCES

We use publicly available data for the Disability IAT from Open Science Framework repository of Project Implicit available at https://osf.io/tx5fi/.

REPORTING

STROBE checklist.

RESULTS

There is a distinct contrast between nurses' explicit and implicit attitudes. While nurses have more positive explicit attitudes towards PWD compared to other groups, they also have more negative implicit attitudes towards PWD. As such there is a contrast between nurses' stated (explicit) attitudes and their unconscious (implicit) attitudes towards PWD. Further, we find that implicit bias towards PWD-among all groups-has not improved over the 15 year period of our sample.

CONCLUSIONS

We present a contrast between nurses' explicit and implicit attitude towards PWD compared to non-healthcare providers. We posit that implicit bias is driven by a combination of workload and stress which drives nurses to unconscious modes of thinking more frequently.

IMPLICATIONS

We discuss three potential tools for improved educational praxis regarding treatment of PWD; (1) more PWD service user involvement, (2) the use of mindfulness techniques to reduce stress and (3) the use of patient contact simulation to promote education and understanding.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

There is no patient or public contribution.

Self-Awareness and Stereotypes: Accurate Prediction of Implicit Gender Stereotyping

Research showing that people can predict the patterns of their implicit evaluations toward social groups has raised questions concerning how widely these findings extend to other domains, such as semantic implicit stereotyping. In a preregistered laboratory study, participants were asked to predict their scores on five implicit gender stereotyping Implicit Associations Tests (IATs). Within-subjects correlations between IAT score predictions and IAT scores showed high levels of accuracy. Although part of the IAT score patterns could be predicted from shared knowledge, own predictions significantly outperformed predictions of random others and normative patterns, suggesting self-awareness beyond reliance on shared knowledge. In line with dual-process models emphasizing that different information is captured by implicit as opposed to explicit measures, predictions explained correlations between implicit and traditional explicit stereotyping measures, and led to acknowledgment of bias. Discussion focuses on understanding conscious awareness of semantic automatic processes and conceptualizations of the cognitions underlying implicit measures.

Nurses' implicit and explicit attitudes towards transgender people and the need for trans-affirming care

Background

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the implicit and explicit attitudes of healthcare professionals - in particular nurses - towards transgender people. This is especially important in light of recent calls for improved trans-affirming care provision by healthcare professionals to generate quality healthcare access and outcomes for transgender people.

Methods

We use publicly available data from the transgender version of the Implicit Association Test from 2020 to 2022. We focus on differences between three subsets of participant: (1) non-healthcare professionals (N = 177,810), (2) non-nursing healthcare professionals (N = 22,443) and (3) nursing healthcare professionals (N = 11,996). We present the results of parametric statistical tests (t-tests) and an ordinary least squares regression, to analyse the robustness of our results when controlling for a host of sociodemographic characteristics.

Results

We find that non-healthcare professionals have significantly lower implicit bias towards transgender people compared to healthcare professionals. Further, within healthcare professionals, we find nurses have significantly higher implicit bias towards transgender people compared to non-nurses. We show how implicit bias and explicit attitudes are highly correlated. Further, we provide evidence that healthcare professionals - but in particular nurses - conflate sex and gender identity.

Conclusion

Whilst nurses continue to have higher levels of implicit and explicit bias towards transgender people there remains a need to globally establish additional enhanced trans-affirming care training provision for nursing and medical students.

Relationships between the race implicit association test and other measures of implicit and explicit social cognition

Background

The race-based Implicit Association Test (IAT) was proposed to measure individual differences in implicit racial bias subsumed within social cognition. In recent years, researchers have debated the theoretical tenets underpinning the IAT, questioning whether performance on this task: (1) measures implicit attitudes that operate automatically outside of conscious awareness; (2) reflects individual differences in social cognition; and (3) can predict social behavior. One way to better address these research questions is to assess whether the race-IAT correlates with other implicit processes that are subsumed within social cognition.

Aims

The current study assessed whether the race-IAT was related to other commonly used individual difference measures of implicit (and explicit) social cognition. Experiment 1 assessed whether dissociable patterns of performance on the race-IAT were related to measures of implicit imitative tendencies, emotion recognition and perspective taking toward White task actors, as well as explicit measures of trait and state affective empathy and racial bias. Overcoming limitations of task conceptual correspondence, Experiment 2 assessed whether these latter tasks were sensitive in detecting racial biases by using both White and Black task actors and again examined their relationships with the race-IAT.

Method

In two lab-based experiments, 226 and 237 participants completed the race-IAT followed by an extensive battery of social cognition measures.

Results

Across both experiments, pro-White/anti-Black bias on the race-IAT was positively related to a pro-White bias on explicit measures of positive affective empathy. However, relationships between the race-IAT and implicit imitative tendencies, perspective taking, emotion recognition, and explicit trait and negative state affective empathy were statistically equivalent.

Conclusion

The race-IAT was consistently related to explicit measures of positive state affective empathy but not to other individual difference measures of implicit social cognition. These findings are discussed with regards to the theoretical underpinnings of the race-IAT as an individual difference measure of implicit social cognition, as well as alternative explanations relating to the reliability of social cognition measures and the various combinations of general-purpose (social and non-social) executive processes that underpin performance on these tasks.

Examining the automaticity and symmetry of sound-shape correspondences

Introduction

A classic example of sound-shape correspondences is the mapping of the vowel /i/ with angular patterns and the vowel /u/ with rounded patterns. Such crossmodal correspondences have been reliably reported when tested in explicit matching tasks. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether such sound-shape correspondences automatically occur and bidirectionally modulate people's perception. We address this question by adopting the explicit matching task and two implicit tasks.

Methods

In Experiment 1, we examined the sound-shape correspondences using the implicit association test (IAT), in which the sounds and shapes were both task-relevant, followed by an explicit matching task. In Experiments 2 and 3, we adopted the speeded classification task; when the target was a sound (or shape), a task-irrelevant shape (or sound) that was congruent or incongruent to the target was simultaneously presented. In addition, the participants performed the explicit matching task either before or after the speeded classification task.

Results and Discussion

The congruency effect was more pronounced in the IAT than in the speeded classification task; in addition, a bin analysis of RTs revealed that the congruency effect took time to develop. These findings suggest that the sound-shape correspondences were not completely automatic. The magnitude and onset of visual and auditory congruency effects were comparable, suggesting that the crossmodal modulations were symmetrical. Taken together, the sound-shape correspondences appeared not to be completely automatic, but their modulation was bidirectionally symmetrical once it occurred.

Creating Implicit Measure Stimulus Sets Using a Multi-Step Piloting Method

The effect of arbitrary stimulus selection is a persistent concern when employing implicit measures. The current study tests a data-driven multi-step procedure to create stimulus items using a combination of free-recall and survey data. Six sets of stimulus items were created, representing healthy food and high sugar items in children, adolescents, and adults. Selected items were highly representative of the target concepts, in frequent use, and of near equal length. Tests of the piloted items in two samples showed slightly higher implicit measure-behavior relations compared to a previously used measure, providing preliminary support for the value in empirically based stimulus selection. Further, the items reported as being the most associated with their target concepts differed notably from what one may expect from the guidelines or population consumption patterns, highlighting the importance of informed stimulus selection.

Crossmodal associations between visual textures and temperature concepts

Visual textures are critical in how individuals form sensory expectations about objects, which include somatosensory properties such as temperature. This study aimed to uncover crossmodal associations between visual textures and temperature concepts. In Experiment 1 (N = 193), we evaluated crossmodal associations between 43 visual texture categories and different temperature concepts (via temperature words such as cold and hot) using an explicit forced-choice test. The results revealed associations between striped, cracked, matted, and waffled visual textures and high temperatures and between crystalline and flecked visual textures and low temperatures. In Experiment 2 (N = 247), we conducted six implicit association tests (IATs) pairing the two visual textures most strongly associated with low (crystalline and flecked) and high (striped and cracked) temperatures with the words cold and hot as per the results of Experiment 1. When pairing the crystalline and striped visual textures, the results revealed that crystalline was matched to the word cold, and striped was matched to the word hot. However, some associations found in the explicit test were not found in the IATs. In Experiment 3 (N = 124), we investigated how mappings between visual textures and concrete entities may influence crossmodal associations with temperature and these visual textures. Altogether, we found a range of association strengths and automaticity levels. Importantly, we found evidence of relative effects. Furthermore, some of these crossmodal associations are partly influenced by indirect mappings to concrete entities.

The project implicit international dataset: Measuring implicit and explicit social group attitudes and stereotypes across 34 countries (2009-2019)

For decades, researchers across the social sciences have sought to document and explain the worldwide variation in social group attitudes (evaluative representations, e.g., young-good/old-bad) and stereotypes (attribute representations, e.g., male-science/female-arts). Indeed, uncovering such country-level variation can provide key insights into questions ranging from how attitudes and stereotypes are clustered across places to why places vary in attitudes and stereotypes (including ecological and social correlates). Here, we introduce the Project Implicit:International (PI:International) dataset that has the potential to propel such research by offering the first cross-country dataset of both implicit (indirectly measured) and explicit (directly measured) attitudes and stereotypes across multiple topics and years. PI:International comprises 2.3 million tests for seven topics (race, sexual orientation, age, body weight, nationality, and skin-tone attitudes, as well as men/women-science/arts stereotypes) using both indirect (Implicit Association Test; IAT) and direct (self-report) measures collected continuously from 2009 to 2019 from 34 countries in each country's native language(s). We show that the IAT data from PI:International have adequate internal consistency (split-half reliability), convergent validity (implicit-explicit correlations), and known groups validity. Given such reliability and validity, we summarize basic descriptive statistics on the overall strength and variability of implicit and explicit attitudes and stereotypes around the world. The PI:International dataset, including both summary data and trial-level data from the IAT, is provided openly to facilitate wide access and novel discoveries on the global nature of implicit and explicit attitudes and stereotypes.

Attribution Impacts Implicit (And Explicit) Evaluations

Two studies examined whether the attributional framing of negative events affected explicit evaluations, as measured by differences in liking, and implicit evaluations, as measured by the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald et al., 1998). In Study 1, participants read negative information about a novel target ordered to elicit internal or external attributions. Participants in the internal attribution condition evaluated the target more negatively than did those in the external attribution condition on both implicit and explicit measures. Study 2 replicated these results and tested the effects of attribution on recently formed negative evaluations. Participants who evaluated targets before and after receiving additional negative information about them demonstrated implicit and explicit evaluative change consistent with the attributional framing of that information. This research provides clear evidence that attribution influences the formation and change of implicit evaluations; however, these effects were weaker than those on explicit measures of evaluation.

The importance of disability representation to address implicit bias in the workplace

Introduction

People are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment. Barriers can be physical or be caused by people's implicit and explicit attitudes towards people with disabilities.

Methods

We utilise the Implicit Association Test to investigate implicit attitudes towards people with disabilities among Human Resource professionals and people involved in making hiring decisions.

Results

We find no significant differences between people who work for large companies or Small- to Medium-sized Enterprises. Similarly, working in Human Resources (or making recruitment decisions) has no effect on implicit bias. We supply the first evidence linking a person's own health status (measured using EQ-5D-5L) to their implicit bias. We find that a worse health status is associated with lower implicit bias towards people with disabilities. In addition, we find women have lower implicit bias than men.

Discussion

The discussion reflects on the need for greater disability representation within the workplace - especially in making hiring decisions.

Undergraduates’ pSTEM identity and motivation in relation to gender- and race-based perceived representation, stereotyped beliefs, and implicit associations

Women and underrepresented minoritized (URM) persons remain marginalized in physical science, technology, engineering, and math (pSTEM). Relative to non-URM men, URM women may experience a double disadvantage based on their gender and race whereby they observe few same-gender and few same-race role models in pSTEM while additionally internalizing stereotypes linking pSTEM with non-URM men. Our hypothesized model was partly supported in a sample of undergraduates ( N = 1,068; 68% women, 44% URM). First, perceiving same-gender or same-race pSTEM role models predicted lower explicit stereotypes among women and URM individuals regarding gender and race, respectively. Second, explicit and implicit associations linking pSTEM with men and White/Asian persons predicted (a) lower pSTEM identity among women and URM students and (b) higher identity among men and non-URM students. Finally, both implicit and explicit pSTEM identity positively predicted expectancy–value beliefs.

Adolescents’ implicit attitudes towards people with immigrant background: Differences and correlates

People with an immigrant background can be affected by stereotypes and discrimination. As adolescence is an important developmental stage, this study investigated whether adolescents hold (negative) implicit attitudes towards people with Turkish immigrant background and whether adolescents differ in the extent of attitudes. Additionally, the relevance of perceived discrimination, identification with culture of residence, motivation to act without predjudice, and quality and quantity of contact to people with Turkish immigrant background for the extent of implicit attitudes was analysed. Analyses are based on 244 adolescents (60.7% female, 1.6% diverse; 13.1% with Turkish immigrant background, 16.8% with immigrant background other than Turkish) who participated in an online study. An implicit association test revealed that negative implicit attitudes towards people with a Turkish immigrant background were present among adolescents. Unlike adolescents with a Turkish immigrant background, adolescents without immigrant background and with immigrant background other than Turkish hold negative implicit attitudes on average. For the total sample, it was found that low perceived discrimination was related to negative implicit attitudes. The results are discussed with respect to substantive and methodological aspects. Implications for research and practice are derived.

Why Context Matters: The Influence of Application Domain on Preferred Degree of Anthropomorphism and Gender Attribution in Human–Robot Interaction

The application of anthropomorphic design features is widely believed to facilitate human–robot interaction. However, the preference for robots’ anthropomorphism is highly context sensitive, as different application domains induce different expectations towards robots. In this study the influence of application domain on the preferred degree of anthropomorphism is examined. Moreover, as anthropomorphic design can reinforce existing gender stereotypes of different work domains, gender associations were investigated. Therefore, participants received different context descriptions and subsequently selected and named one robot out of differently anthropomorphic robots in an online survey. The results indicate that lower degrees of anthropomorphism are preferred in the industrial domain and higher degrees of anthropomorphism in the social domain, whereas no clear preference was found in the service domain. Unexpectedly, mainly functional names were ascribed to the robots and if human names were chosen, male names were given more frequently than female names even in the social domain. The results support the assumption that the preferred degree of anthropomorphism depends on the context. Hence, the sociability of a domain might determine to what extent anthropomorphic design features are suitable. Furthermore, the results indicate that robots are overall associated more functional, than gendered (and if gendered then masculine). Therefore, the design features of robots should enhance functionalities, rather than specific gendered anthropomorphic attributes to avoid stereotypes and not further reinforce the association of masculinity and technology.

Diversity training experiences and factors associated with implicit racial bias among recent genetic counselor graduates of accredited programs in the United States and Canada

Implicit racial bias in healthcare settings can impact delivery of patient care. Exploration of this bias is necessary to improve patient experiences. We sought to understand implicit racial bias among graduates of accredited genetic counseling programs in the United States and Canada in the class of 2020 as they enter the genetics workforce and assess how this bias is associated with training and life experiences. Implicit racial bias was quantified through use of the Black-White Implicit Association Test (BW-IAT). Participants also completed an online survey focused on didactic and clinical training and personal experiences with diverse populations. Participants (n = 100) were majority White (88%), and 44% demonstrated an implicit bias favoring White individuals. Respondents reported a lack of interaction with Black healthcare professionals during their training. A concerning proportion (38%) reported experiencing or witnessing racial insensitivity perpetrated by genetic counselors or physicians in supervisory roles. Graduates reported diversity coursework as significantly less effective overall than other general genetic counseling coursework. This study reveals prevalence of implicit racial bias among genetic counselor graduates, lack of exposure to diverse populations within and outside of graduate training, and concerns regarding racial insensitivity and effectiveness of didactic and clinical genetic counseling training. Employers and program directors should implement revisions to ongoing training and graduate curriculum with consideration of these findings.

Adopting Evaluative Conditioning to Improve Coach-Athlete Relationships

Coach–athlete relationships are key to athletes’ well-being, development, training, and sports performance. The present study explored the effect of an evaluative conditioning (EC) intervention on the improvement of coach–athlete relationships. We applied a 6-week EC intervention to the athletes in a volleyball team with two of their coaches involved in the EC while the third coach taken as control. In the EC, we repeatedly presented the coaches’ facial images (i.e., conditioned stimuli) together with positively valenced pictures and words (i.e., unconditioned stimuli) to the athletes. The results showed that the EC intervention led the athletes to recognize their coaches’ neutral faces as showing more happiness, respond faster to coach-positive associations in the implicit association test (IAT), and give higher ratings to the coaches in the Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (CART-Q). The present study suggests that EC may be adopted as an effective intervention for coach–athlete relationships, altering athletes’ affective associations with their coaches to be more positive and improving their explicitly evaluation of the relationship.

Mapping social exclusion in STEM to men's implicit bias and women's career costs

Why are women socially excluded in fields dominated by men? Beyond the barriers associated with any minority group's mere numerical underrepresentation, we theorized that gender stereotypes exacerbate the social exclusion of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workplaces, with career consequences. Although widely discussed, clear evidence of these relationships remains elusive. In a sample of 1,247 STEM professionals who work in teams, we tested preregistered hypotheses that acts of gendered social exclusion are systematically associated with both men's gender stereotypes (Part 1) and negative workplace outcomes for women (Part 2). Combining social network metrics of inclusion and reaction time measures of implicit stereotypes (the tendency to "think STEM, think men"), this study provides unique empirical evidence of the chilly climate women often report experiencing in STEM. Men with stronger implicit gender stereotypes had fewer social ties to female teammates. In turn, women (but not men) with fewer incoming cross-gender social ties reported worse career fit and engagement. Moderated mediation revealed that for women (but not men), cross-gender social exclusion was linked to more negative workplace outcomes via lower social fit. Effects of social exclusion were distinct from respect. We discuss the possible benefits of fostering positive cross-gender social relationships to promote women's professional success in STEM.

Increasing the Flexibility of Implicit Personality Assessment: An Examination of a Universal Assessment Procedure of the Self

The current studies systematically examined a new version of the Questionnaire-Based Implicit Association Test (qIAT), which minimizes the differences between direct and indirect modes of assessment. Studies 1a (N = 276) and 1 b (N = 238) tested a method that enables an indirect assessment of questionnaires that include only non-reversed items. Studies 2a (N = 255) and 2 b (N = 284) tested a task that substitutes the problematic construct-related category labels with generic, universal categories. These studies, which focused on extraversion, supported the feasibility, reliability and validity of this procedure. Studies 3a-3c (N = 159, 154 and 151, respectively) supported the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and convergent validity of these methods, assessing three well-researched, semantically complex personality scales: Aggressive Humor Style, Need for Closure and Anxiety Sensitivity. Studies 4a (N = 195) and 4 b (N = 283) supported the implicitness of the qIAT, as most respondents were not aware of this task's purpose. In Study 4c (N = 598), participants who reported using antidepressants had lower self-esteem qIAT scores compared to a control group, thus supporting the criterion validity of this task. Taken together, findings suggest that the new qIAT substantially increases the scope of indirect personality assessment.

Anomalies in implicit attitudes research

In this review, I provide a pessimistic assessment of the indirect measurement of attitudes by highlighting the persisting anomalies in the science of implicit attitudes, focusing on their validity, reliability, predictive power, and causal efficiency, and I draw some conclusions concerning the validity of the implicit bias construct. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Reasoning and Decision Making.

Implicit associations related to physical disability among nursing students

BACKGROUND

Negative beliefs about disability are associated with poorer outcomes for individuals with disabilities; understanding disability-related attitudes is critical for clinical care. Recently, interest in attitudes toward people with disabilities has increased; however, most studies focus on explicit attitudes. In contrast, the Disability Attitude Implicit Association Test (DA-IAT) is designed to evaluate respondents' underlying automatic preferences regarding physical ability.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this pilot study was to expand the literature on health professionals' implicit disability attitudes by analyzing the DA-IAT in a sample of nursing students.

METHODS

A cross-sectional design was utilized with a sample of nursing students (n = 95; 88.7% female). Respondents completed the DA-IAT online before responding to some basic demographic questions.

RESULTS

Participants associated able-bodied status with positive descriptors more quickly than disability related stimuli.

CONCLUSIONS

Most participants in this sample of nursing students (87%) mentally associated able-bodiedness with desirable traits in a more efficient manner than disability. Future research should focus on developing models to better understand the relationship between automatic processing, disability-related attitudes, and how this relationship informs clinician behavior.

Invalid Claims About the Validity of Implicit Association Tests by Prisoners of the Implicit Social-Cognition Paradigm

In a prior publication, I used structural equation modeling of multimethod data to examine the construct validity of Implicit Association Tests. The results showed no evidence that IATs measure implicit constructs (e.g., implicit self-esteem, implicit racial bias). This critique of IATs elicited several responses by implicit social-cognition researchers, who tried to defend the validity and usefulness of IATs. I carefully examine these arguments and show that they lack validity. IAT proponents consistently ignore or misrepresent facts that challenge the validity of IATs as measures of individual differences in implicit cognitions. One response suggests that IATs can be useful even if they merely measure the same constructs as self-report measures, but I find no support for the claim that IATs have practically significant incremental predictive validity. In conclusions, IATs are widely used without psychometric evidence of construct or predictive validity.

Can the Implicit Association Test Measure Automatic Judgment? The Validation Continues

In this commentary, we welcome Schimmack’s reanalysis of Bar-Anan and Vianello’s multitrait multimethod (MTMM) data set, and we highlight some limitations of both the original and the secondary analyses. We note that when testing the fit of a confirmatory model to a data set, theoretical justifications for the choices of the measures to include in the model and how to construct the model improve the informational value of the results. We show that making different, theory-driven specification choices leads to different results and conclusions than those reported by Schimmack (this issue, p. 396). Therefore, Schimmack’s reanalyses of our data are insufficient to cast doubt on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a measure of automatic judgment. We note other reasons why the validation of the IAT is still incomplete but conclude that, currently, the IAT is the best available candidate for measuring automatic judgment at the person level.