The Validity of the IAT and the AMP as Measures of Racial Prejudice

Abstract

Implicit measures such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) have been hailed as promising methods for gauging subconscious or covert racial prejudice. However, their validity has been contested. Using data from the ANES 2008--2009 panel study and the 2008 ANES time series study, we demonstrate that: (1) although they purport to measure the same thing, the relationship between the IAT and the AMP in a high-quality nationally representative sample of white respondents is substantively indistinguishable from zero; (2) both the IAT and the AMP classify an improbable proportion of white Americans as having more positive attitudes toward Black Americans than white Americans; and (3) substantial numbers of white Americans that the IAT and the AMP classify as free of prejudice openly endorse explicitly negative stereotypes of Black Americans.