Implicit Association Research Articles

Wanting-liking dissociation and altered dopaminergic functioning: Similarities betweeninternet gaming disorder and tobaccouse disorder.

Although internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been included in the DSM-5 for approximately 10 years, debate remains regarding its existence and classification. The current research incorporated three approaches. First, implicit association tests were used to examine for potential dissociation between wanting and liking in IGD. Second, brain features in wanting and liking circuits were tested and compared with tobacco use disorder (TUD) when performing a cue-craving task to explore the neural features of wanting and liking. Third, dopaminergic systems were investigated in IGD and TUD using neuromelanin-sensitive MRI. The implicit association test results supported a wanting-liking dissociation in IGD participants. Functional MRI data suggested neural correlates underlying wanting-liking dissociation in IGD and TUD participants, with positive correlations suggesting greater dissociation with increasing addiction severity. Neuromelanin results suggest dopaminergic differences in IGD and TUD relative to healthy control participants. A wanting-liking dissociation in IGD participants suggests gaming motivations in IGD relating to incentive sensitization rather than hedonic responses. The neuromelanin-sensitive MRI results suggest dopaminergic involvement in IGD and TUD. The findings suggest similar brain-behaviour mechanisms for IGD and TUD based on an incentive-sensitization model for addiction, having implications for potential therapeutic strategies and policy-based interventions.

Implicit measures of suicide vulnerability: Investigating suicide-related information-processing biases and a deficit in behavioral impulse control in a high-risk sample and healthy controls

ObjectiveRelevant implicit markers of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) have only been studied in isolation with mixed evidence. This is the first study that investigated a suicide attentional bias, a death-identity bias and a deficit in behavioral impulsivity in a high-risk sample and healthy controls. MethodWe administered the Death Implicit Association Test, the Modified Suicide Stroop Task, and a Go/No-Go Task to inpatient suicide ideators (n = 42), suicide attempters (n = 40), and community controls (n = 61). ResultsSuicide ideators and attempters showed a suicide attentional bias and a death-identity bias compared to healthy controls. Ideators and attempters did not differ in these implicit information-processing biases. Notably, only attempters were more behaviorally impulsive compared to controls; however, ideators and attempters did not significantly differ in behavioral impulsivity. Moreover, implicit scores were positively intercorrelated in the total sample. ConclusionIn line with the Cognitive Model of Suicide, ideators and attempters display suicide-related information processing biases, which can be considered as implicit cognitive markers of suicide vulnerability. Furthermore, attempters have elevated levels of behavioral impulsiveness. These results are highly relevant in the context of crisis intervention strategies and warrant further research.

Perspective matters: a systematic review of immersive virtual reality to reduce racial prejudice

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social justice movements, increased attention has been directed to levels of intergroup tension worldwide. Racial prejudice is one such tension that permeates societies and creates distinct inequalities at all levels of our social ecosystem. Whether these prejudices are present explicitly (directly or consciously) or implicitly (unconsciously or automatically), manipulating body ownership by embodying an avatar of another race using immersive virtual reality (IVR) presents a promising approach to reducing racial bias. Nevertheless, research findings are contradictory, which is possibly attributed to variances in methodological factors across studies. This systematic review, therefore, aimed to identify variables and methodological variations that may underlie the observed discrepancies in study outcomes. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, this systematic review encompassed 12 studies that employed IVR and embodiment techniques to investigate racial attitudes. Subsequently, two mini meta-analyses were performed on four and five of these studies, respectively — both of which utilised the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a metric to gauge these biases. This review demonstrated that IVR allows not only the manipulation of a sense of body ownership but also the investigation of wider social identities. Despite the novelty of IVR as a tool to help understand and possibly reduce racial bias, our review has identified key limitations in the existing literature. Specifically, we found inconsistencies in the measures and IVR equipment and software employed, as well as diversity limitations in demographic characteristics within both the sampled population and the embodiment of avatars. Future studies are needed to address these critical shortcomings. Specific recommendations are suggested, these include: (1) enhancing participant diversity in terms of the sample representation and by integrating ethnically diverse avatars; (2) employing multi-modal methods in assessing embodiment; (3) increasing consistency in the use and administration of implicit and explicit measures of racial prejudice; and (4) implementing consistent approaches in using IVR hardware and software to enhance the realism of the IVR experience.

Explicit measures for emotional congruence with children are related to sexual interests in a male community sample, but not implicit measures.

This study sought to disentangle several phenotypic correlates of pedophilic sexual interests, such as emotional congruence with children and lack of empathy. We utilized Implicit Association Tests and self-report questionnaires for emotional congruence with children and analyzed the psychometric properties of these measures. Further, we analyzed the associations between these measures and self-reported pedophilic sexual interests and empathy. The sample consisted of 110 adult community males (prevalence of sexual interest in children at least to some extent: 5.5%) with or without child-related jobs (43.6% vs. 56.4%) recruited online in the general population. Overall, we found equivocal parameters for reliability of the implicit and explicit measures of emotional congruence with children (α = 0.29 to 0.76). The self-reported emotional congruence with children was only weakly linked to the implicit positive evaluations of children (r = 0.170, p = 0.039), not linked to empathy except for distress in social interactions (r = 0.199, p = 0.019), and moderately linked to deviant sexual interests in children (r = 0.321 to 0.404, p < 0.001), especially in men working with children (R2 = 0.04, p = 0.027). Further studies are warranted to expand the sample to the offender population and explore the more complex network of constructs related to pedophilia.

Temporal Knowledge Graph Reasoning Based on Entity Relationship Similarity Perception

Temporal knowledge graphs (TKGs) are used for dynamically modeling facts in the temporal dimension, and are widely used in various fields. However, existing reasoning models often fail to consider the similarity features between entity relationships and static attributes, making it difficult for them to effectively handle these temporal attributes. Therefore, these models have limitations in dealing with previously invisible entities that appear over time and the implicit associations of static attributes between entities. To address this issue, we propose a temporal knowledge graph reasoning model based on Entity Relationship Similarity Perception, known as ERSP. This model employs the similarity measurement method to capture the similarity features of entity relationships and static attributes, and then fuses these features to generate structural representations. Finally, we provide a decoder with entity relationship representation, static attribute representation, and structural representation information to form a quadruple. Experiments conducted on five common benchmark datasets show that ERSP surpasses the majority of TKG reasoning methods.

User Interface Evaluation Through Implicit-Association Tests

The implicit-association test (IAT) is a method for measuring subconscious associations between concepts in memory. It is widely used in social psychology research for assessing associations that people may be unable or unwilling to articulate, including those relating to race, gender, self harm, and risk-taking behaviour. We describe the motivation for adapting the IAT to user interface evaluation, including its potential to support rapid A/B testing that is amenable to online crowd-source dissemination, while also potentially reducing the validity risks caused by biases such as the good subject effect. We present a method (the UI-IAT) for conducting implicit association tests for A/B user interface evaluation, and we present results of two experiments demonstrating that, although the method can successfully discriminate between 'good' and 'bad' interfaces, its sensitivity is low. We discuss implications for practical use of the UI-IAT and for further work.

Can I still eat this? Using implicit and explicit measures to explore consumer behavior toward food products with date labels

This study investigates implicit and explicit attitudes toward products before and beyond the best-before date (BBD) using an Implicit Association Test and an online questionnaire. Moreover, we test whether consumer perception of and behavior toward products beyond the BBD can be manipulated using a priming task. We use a three-group between-subjects design where respondents had to recall either a frugal, a wasteful, or an unrelated behavior. Results show that consumers have negative implicit associations with products beyond the BBD. Reduced health and safety perceptions, consumers’ strategies to determine edibility, and general risk perception of products beyond the BBD predict consumption of these products. While recalling a frugal behavior does not have significant effects, recalling a wasteful behavior prior to evaluating products beyond the BBD leads to a decrease in the perceived safety and healthfulness of these products.

Can mindfulness-based training impact explicit and implicit attitudes and sustainable nutrition behavior? A focus on vegetarianism

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a mindfulness intervention (IG) compared to an inactive control group (CG) on explicit and implicit attitudes toward vegetarian and meat-based foods, nutrition behavior measures, trait mindfulness and wellbeing. MethodsIn the IG (N = 66), we implemented a mindfulness-based intervention consisting of eight weekly group sessions online, along with an additional half-day session held on campus. The CG (N = 71) received no intervention or training. We employed a pre-/post-intervention design involving questionnaires (trait mindfulness, wellbeing, sustainable nutrition behavior scale), an online supermarket scenario, as well as an explicit rating task and an implicit association task using pictures of vegetarian and meat-based foods. Additionally, a voluntary follow-up testing was conducted two months after the final group session. ResultsNo intervention effects were observed on explicit and implicit attitudes, wellbeing, or nutrition behavior measures. However, there was an increase in trait mindfulness within the IG. Exploratory cross-sectional findings indicated that trait mindfulness facets such as “Acting with Awareness” and “Outer Awareness”, along with explicit attitudes, were significant predictors of self-reported sustainable consumption behavior. Additionally, sex and explicit attitudes were identified as significant predictors of vegetarian consumption behavior in the online supermarket task. ConclusionOur findings could not substantiate previous claims regarding the potential causal effects of mindfulness practice on sustainable consumption behavior, specifically in the realm of sustainable and vegetarian nutrition, as well as subjective wellbeing. Future studies may benefit from implementing longer-term mindfulness-based interventions and considering other potential decisive factors, such as connectedness to nature and others. Integrating training elements focusing on these specific variables into the intervention could be valuable.

Effects of Implicit Racial Bias and Standardized Patient Race on Genetic Counseling Students’ Patient-Centered Communication

ABSTRACT Clinician racial bias has been associated with less patient-centered communication, but little is known about how it affects trainees’ communication. We investigated genetic counseling students’ communication during sessions with Black or White standardized patients (SPs) and the extent to which communication was associated with SP race or student scores on the Race Implicit Association Test (IAT). Sixty students conducted a baseline SP session and up to two follow-up sessions. Students were randomly assigned to a different White or Black SP and one of three clinical scenarios for each session. Fifty-six students completed the IAT. Session recordings were coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Linear regression models assessed the effects of IAT score and SP race on a variety of patient-centered communication indicators. Random intercept models assessed the within-student effects of SP race on communication outcomes during the baseline session and in follow-up sessions (n = 138). Students were predominantly White (71%). Forty students (71%) had IAT scores indicating some degree of pro-White implicit preference. Baseline sessions with White relative to Black SPs had higher patient-centeredness scores. Within-participant analyses indicate that students used a higher proportion of back-channels (a facilitative behavior that cues interest and encouragement) and conducted longer sessions with White relative to Black SPs. Students’ stronger pro-White IAT scores were associated with using fewer other facilitative statements during sessions with White relative to Black SPs. Different patterns of communication associated with SP race and student IAT scores were found for students than those found in prior studies with experienced clinicians.

Investigating Unconscious Race Bias and Bias Awareness Among Vascular Surgeons.

Implicit bias can influence behavior and decision-making. In clinical settings, implicit bias may influence treatment decisions and contribute to health disparities. Given documented Black-White disparities in vascular care, the purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and degree of unconscious bias and awareness of bias among vascular surgeons treating peripheral artery disease (PAD). The sampling frame included all vascular surgeons who participate in the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI). Participants completed a survey which included demographic questions, the race implicit association test (IAT) to measure magnitude of unconscious bias, and six bias awareness questions to measure conscious bias. The magnitude of unconscious bias was no preference; or slight, moderate, or strong in the direction of pro-White or pro-Black. Data from participants were weighted to account for nonresponse bias and known differences in the characteristics of surgeons who chose to participate compared to the full registry. We stratified unconscious and conscious findings by physician race/ethnicity, physician sex, and years of experience. Finally, we examined the relationship between unconscious and conscious bias. There were 2,512 surgeons in the VQI registry, 304 of whom completed the survey, including getting IAT results. Most participants (71.6%) showed a pro-White bias with 73.0% of this group in the moderate and strong categories. While 77.5% of respondents showed conscious awareness of bias, of those whose conscious results showed lack of awareness, 67.8% had moderate or strong bias, compared to 55.7% for those with awareness. Bias magnitude varied based on physician race/ethnicity and years of experience. Women were more likely than men to report awareness of biases and potential impact of bias on decision-making. Most people have some level of unconscious bias, developed from early life reinforcements, social stereotypes, and learned experiences. Regarding health disparities, however, these are important findings in a profession that takes care of patients with PAD due to heavy burden of comorbid conditions and high proportion of individuals from structurally vulnerable groups. Given the lack of association between unconscious and conscious awareness of biases, awareness may be an important first step in mitigation to minimize racial disparities in healthcare.

Awareness and Calibration: The Role of Descriptive Norms and Social Desirability in Accurate IAT Score Predictions of Food Items vs. Social Groups.

Extending research that people are able to predict the patterns of their social group biases on Implicit Association Tests (IATs), we let participants predict and complete IATs toward five different food item pairs and compared the results with the social-groups domain. Participants predicted the patterns of their IAT scores with similar accuracy in both domains, suggesting similar internal awareness (evidenced by comparable within-subjects correlations), even though food evaluations followed less descriptively-normative patterns. At the same time, participants were better-calibrated in communicating their evaluations in the domain of food than social groups (evidenced by higher between-subjects correlations). This discrepancy may partly stem from participants' tendency to refrain from using harsh labels when predicting social group biases, despite their demonstrated awareness of them: IAT scores predicted as "moderate" or "strong" for food preferences tended to be labeled "mild" for social groups. Discussion centers on the importance of distinguishing between awareness and calibration.

Using reaction time procedures to assess implicit attitudes toward violence in a nonconvicted male sample.

In this study, we sought to capture implicit attitudes toward violence by administering response latency measures. We then examined their associations with explicit (e.g., assessed with self-report) attitudes toward violence and self-reported violent behavior in a combined sample of males from a Canadian university and males from the general community (N = 251; 156 students and 95 community members). To date, there have been mixed findings regarding these associations; some of this inconsistency may be due to the difficulty in accurately conceptualizing and assessing implicit attitudes toward violence. Therefore, we administered three response latency measures to assess this construct: a violence evaluation implicit association test (VE-IAT), a personalized VE-IAT (P-VE-IAT), and a violence evaluation relational responding task, along with three self-report measures of explicit attitudes toward violence and three self-report measures of violent behavior. More positive implicit attitudes toward violence were related to more positive explicit attitudes toward violence (for VE-IAT and P-VE-IAT; r = 0.18 to 0.22), greater likelihood of violence (for VE-IAT; r = 0.18 and for P-VE-IAT; r = 0.16), and greater propensity for violence (for the VE-IAT; r = 0.16). All measures of explicit attitudes toward violence and violent behavior were moderately to strongly associated with one another (r = 0.42 to 0.81). Furthermore, implicit attitudes toward violence explained additional variance in some violent outcomes above explicit attitudes alone. Our findings suggest that scores on certain reaction time measures are important for understanding likelihood and propensity for violence, especially when combined with explicit attitude measures.

Interfering implicit attitudes of adopting recycled products from construction wastes

The rapid growth of the construction industry has led to significant environmental issues, notably the sharp escalation in construction waste. Recent endeavors have prioritized on recycling and reusing of construction waste. Nevertheless, despite the evident public support, the adoption of recycled products remains constrained, primarily as a result of subsequent unfavorable implicit perceptions. To understand the end users’ implicit attitudes, this study employed a Single-Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for analysis. The experiment results confirm the existence of detrimental implicit attitudes, even as self-reported attitudes remained positive. The experiment results, D-scores, suggest that emotional interventions have stronger impact as they reach peak (15.9s) 36% faster that the rational interventions. The proposed implicit attitude measurement approach can be extended to understand and promote other green products and recycled materials.

Sound of freshness: Crafting multisensory experience in perfumery

The current landscape of the perfume industry faces the challenge of enhancing product appeal and captivating consumers through innovation. Integrating multisensory elements into perfume experiences has the potential to drive this innovation forward. This research presents a novel methodology for characterizing sounds that evoke the perception of freshness in fragrances. Three experiments were conducted to explore the transferability of identified sound characteristics into the experience of certain fragrances. Experiment 1 assessed selected sounds to identify auditory parameters that effectively triggered primary freshness attributes. Based on these results, originally composed brand-aligned soundtracks were tested in Experiment 2 using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to investigate associations with freshness and brand values. Experiment 3 examined whether these soundtracks effectively modulated the implicit olfactory experience of two commercial fragrances. The findings showed that the soundtracks successfully elicited specific enhanced effects in how people implicitly perceived the freshness of a fragrance. These outcomes revealed how soundtracks can enhance the perceptions of freshness attributes (e.g., cold, blue, light) in the fragrance experience, consistencies and variations between self-report and implicit measures, and practical applications in multisensory strategies for cosmetic companies.

Thinking of food: The mental representation of healthy foods as unprepared

We find that people implicitly and explicitly represent healthy foods they categorize as healthy in their purest, least prepared forms but represent foods they categorize as unhealthy in their most prepared forms (e.g., a veggie patty is represented as frozen while a beef burger is represented in a bun with melted cheese and ready to eat). We find this effect across several studies using both image and word sorting measures in explicit tasks and implicit association tasks. The effect results from the perception of health and taste as two conflicting goals. Preparation (e.g., cooking, adding toppings) makes food more delicious, which creates categorization ambiguity. Hence, healthy food is thought of as unprepared. Indeed, individual differences in perceived health-taste goal conflict moderate the effect. Critically, the representation of healthy foods matters for food decisions. In an experiment that manipulated the descriptive language on a restaurant menu, emphasizing the preparation of foods increased participants’ preference for healthy foods (with no improvement for unhealthy foods).

Eliciting cognitive consistency increases acceptance of implicit bias.

Resistance to knowledge about implicit bias jeopardizes the ability to learn, understand, and act to outsmart bias. Across three experiments and five independent samples (N > 3,500), conditions that increase cognitive consistency were created alongside control conditions. In Experiment 1, using a race (Black-White) Implicit Association Test (IAT), cognitive consistency was enhanced when participants evaluated the validity and utility of the test before, rather than after, receiving the test result, leading to greater acceptance of bias. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants either evaluated their performance on a Black-White IAT alone or evaluated their performance on a morally innocuous Insect-Flower IAT prior to a Black-White IAT. Again, resistance to evidence of implicit racial bias was reduced in the latter condition, where the imperative for cognitive consistency was heightened. In all three experiments, creating ordinary conditions to heighten cognitive consistency was associated with increased bias awareness and acceptance and, additionally, with support for actions to minimize its consequence-outcomes critical to achieving effective bias education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Unveiling the Associative Mechanisms Underlying the Additive Bias: Using an Implicit Association Test to Gain Insight into People's Preference for Additive Actions

ABSTRACTWhen faced with the need to transform an object, idea, or situation, people have a tendency to favor adding new components rather than removing existing ones. This is called the additive bias. Previous research, along with historical and anecdotal examples, shows that this bias may significantly reduce problem‐solving abilities and have a detrimental impact on the innovation process. In this study, our objective was to develop a novel tool, the additive bias implicit association test (ad‐IAT), to investigate the reasons underlying people's preference for additive actions. By using this tool, we empirically demonstrated that people displayed an inherent tendency to assign a positive valence to additive concepts and to perceive additive actions as safer and more functional than subtractive concepts. Importantly, we also found that implicit preference for addition resulted in participants favoring additive actions while neglecting subtractive alternatives when engaged in a problem‐solving task. Collectively, our series of experiments substantiated the effectiveness of our ad‐IAT in uncovering and quantifying the additive bias. This, in turn, provided a deeper comprehension of the underlying factors contributing to the bias and its impact on people's behavior.

The Ups and Downs of Black and White: Do Sensorimotor Metaphors Reflect an Evolved Perceptual Interface?

ABSTRACT The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to measure population levels of conceptual alignment among two polar sensory metaphors and clusters of concepts to which they are commonly applied. A total of 873 participants were tested online, to compare within- and between-cluster alignments of concepts associated with two different polar sensory metaphors (up/down and black/white). IAT results were sensitive to semantic alignments that were also picked up by Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) using a large-scale corpus of English. However, even with these semantic alignments taken into account, the dual categorization results demonstrated strong metaphor-cluster alignments over and above the predictions of LSA. It is proposed that, rather than ontogenetic development of metaphoric concepts based on sensorimotor experience, conventionalized sensorimotor metaphors in language may be cognitive tools that provide language learners with insights supported by conceptual properties of a phylogenetically evolved perceptual interface.

Emotional body representations: more pronounced effect of hands at a more explicit level of awareness.

To understand conditions such as body dysmorphic disorder, we need to understand healthy individuals' perceptual, conceptual, and emotional representations of their bodies. Not much is known about the differences in these representations across body districts, for example, hands, feet, and whole-body, despite their differences at sensory and functional levels. To understand this, we developed more implicit and explicit measures of body satisfaction for these body districts. Sixty-seven participants (age M = 30.66, SD = 11.19) completed a series of online Implicit Association Tests (IAT) and a Body Image Satisfaction Visual Analogue Scale (BISVAS; explicit) for each body district (hands/feet/whole body). The results show no differences in the more implicit level of awareness in hands, feet and whole body, while differences are apparent at a more explicit level of awareness, with higher scores for body image satisfaction for the hands than the whole body and marginally significant lower scores for feet than hands. Those findings suggest that visual attention, level of concern attributed to a body district, and disgust drivers are possible factors affecting the experience of attitudinal body image satisfaction.

Improved implicit self-esteem is associated with extended antidepressant effects following a novel synergistic intervention.

In a previously published randomized controlled trial, automated self-association training (ASAT), a novel digital intervention, was found to extend the rapid antidepressant effect of a single infusion of ketamine for at least 30 days. In this secondary analysis, we aimed to understand the potential role of implicit self-esteem in the combined antidepressant effect of ketamine and ASAT training, by investigating the novel synergistic treatment's effects on implicit self-associations and their relation to symptom improvement. A total of 154 adults (ages 18-60) with treatment-resistant unipolar depression and lower-than-normative explicit self-esteem were randomized in a double-blind, parallel-arm design to receive one of three treatment allocations: an active/active treatment combination consisting of one infusion of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) followed by four days of ASAT ( ~ 30-40 min/day), or one of two control arms that lacked either the active drug or the active behavioral component. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to behaviorally assess the strength of association between self-related stimuli and negative concepts. Linear regression models were used to test the relationship between group assignment, IAT scores acquired immediately post-treatment, and both acute and extended clinical outcomes (% change in Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale scores, relative to pre-treatment baseline) in the trial. The group assigned to ketamine + ASAT intervention, compared to the other groups, had a pattern of IAT scores indicating more positive self-associations immediately after treatment relative to the control arms (F(1, 131) = 3.979; p = 0.048). In regression models, IAT scores tracked with concurrent (acute post-treatment) % change in MADRS scores across all treatment arms (p = 0.001), and mediated more extended (Day 30) depression improvements specifically for the ketamine+ASAT arm (group * IAT interaction term: β = -0.201; p = 0.049). Our findings suggest that changing implicit self-worth during a post-ketamine 'plasticity window' is one key mechanism whereby the novel ketamine+ASAT treatment combination exerts its antidepressant benefit, confirming the intended treatment target at the level of implicit cognition. Future studies should seek to further enhance the reliability of the biobehavioral intervention's impact on implicit cognition, as this mechanism appears linked to the intervention's enduring clinical benefits.