Trying But Failing: Implicit Attitude Transfer Is Not Eliminated by Overt or Subtle Objectivity Manipulations

Abstract

Attitude transfer is the phenomenon whereby attitudes toward group members generalize automatically to new individuals in the same group. Although robust at the implicit level, people consciously adjust this guilt-by-association thinking when reporting explicit attitudes (Ranganath & Nosek, 2008). We tested whether people could control implicit attitude transfer if given proper motivation and instruction. We attempted to induce intentional control over attitude transfer using a variety of established methods, but in 8 studies, implicit attitudes formed and transferred to new group members. We conclude that implicit attitude transfer is a robust automatic phenomenon that is not disrupted by intentional control.