Implicit Attitudes Research Articles

Implicit Attitudes and Terror Management: Pilot of Implicit Association Test as a Means of Measuring Death-Thought Accessibility

Terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) has been extensively tested and applied in a variety of contexts. One of the major criticisms of TMT is that there are methodological issues with assessing some of the proposed processes within the theory, such as activation of death thought accessibility. The present study provides an initial test of a proposed alternative for measuring death thought accessibility using an image-based implicit association test instead of the traditional word fragment completion task used in a majority of TMT research. An experiment was carried out with 200 undergraduate students using a 2 (mortality salience: Yes or no) x 2 (social/fiscal conservatism: Low or high) between-subjects design. Results provided partial empirical support for the use of an IAT-based measure for death thought accessibility relying on color images. The IAT-based measure outperformed the traditional word fragment completion task at discriminating between mortality and non-mortality salient participants in terms of death thought accessibility.Moreover, this study also tested the mortality salience hypothesis to determine whether mortality salience activates cultural worldview defenses following a brief delay. Specifically, participants with differing political ideologies were asked to evaluate an editorial in support of the Muslim ban. Results found that after being reminded of their death, participants with strong levels of conservatism reported more positive attitudes toward the Muslim ban, relative to those in the control condition (i.e., non-mortality salient). Implications of the findings for this study as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Implicit cognitions in problematic social network use.

Implicit cognitions may be involved in the development and maintenance of specific Internet use disorders such as problematic social network use (PSNU). In more detail, implicit attitude, attentional biases, approach and avoidance tendencies as well as semantic memory associations are considered relevant in the context of PSNU. This viewpoint article summarizes the available literature on implicit cognitions in PSNU. We systematically reviewed articles of implicit cognitions in PSNU from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest databases based on a targeted search strategy and assessed using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The present findings suggest that specific implicit cognitions are important in the context of PSNU and therefore show parallels to other addictive behaviors. However, the empirical evidence is limited to a few studies on this topic. Implicit cognitions in PSNU should be explored in more depth and in the context of other affective and cognitive mechanisms in future work.

The positive impact of mindfulness interventions on the explicit and implicit affective attitudes toward vegetarian foods.

The main goal of our intervention study was to investigate whether two conceptually different mindfulness interventions positively impacted the explicit and implicit affective evaluations of vegetarian foods. We included possible mediating variables (e.g., wellbeing) and related our results to the stage model of self-regulated behavioral change (SSBC). We implemented a compassion and caring-based mental training (N = 31) and an adapted MBSR course (N = 34) as mindfulness interventions, and a stress-reduction course (N = 26) as the active control group. The curriculums consisted of 12 weekly group sessions á 75 min. All participants were tested pre- and post-intervention and 3 months after the last intervention session, answered questionnaires (mindfulness, compassion, wellbeing, items of the SSBC) and completed an explicit affective evaluation task and an affective priming task. There was an improvement in the explicit attitudes toward vegetarian foods regardless of the intervention group. In the SSBC, we found a link between the explicit attitudes toward vegetarian foods and the indicated stage in the model. Multiple regression analysis revealed social and personal norms and a vegetarian/vegan diet as the only significant predictors for goal intention in the SSBC. The results of our study suggest that both conceptually different mindfulness interventions, as well as a stress-reduction program, have a positive impact on explicit affective attitudes toward vegetarian foods. We highlight the meaning of inner dimensions and transformation for change processes for a more sustainable diet and the role of social and personal norms.

Reconsidering the Relationship Between Anti-immigration Attitudes and Preferences for the AfD Using Implicit Attitudes Measures

AbstractThe study of demand-side factors for the success of radical right-wing populist parties has highlighted anti-immigration attitudes (AIA) as a particularly important predictor. However, these findings have relied heavily on direct self-report measures. This preregistered study theorises that direct measures may have underestimated, through social desirability bias, or overestimated, through cognitive dissonance avoidance, the relationship between AIA and support for the German radical right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD). A direct questionnaire and two Single-Category Implicit Association Tests were administered to a stratified sample of the German population (N = 369) to measure both explicit and implicit preferences for the AfD and AIA. Results reveal that the firm relationship between AIA and AfD voting intentions is strongest in an all-explicit setting, reduced in mixed analyses, and eliminated in the all-implicit model. This provides evidence that the need for respondents to report consistent ideologies may be a more serious threat to valid results in political attitudes research than is generally assumed. Social desirability seems to be less of an issue when assessing the strength of the correlation between right-wing attitudes and AfD preferences. Thorough robustness checks confirmed the reliability of these findings.

Behavioral and neurophysiological indices of the racial bias modulation after virtual embodiment in other-race body

Racial bias-nonconscious behavioral inclinations against people of other ethnic groups-heavily contributes to inequality and discrimination. Immersive virtual reality (IVR) can reduce implicit racial bias through the feeling of owning (embodying) a virtual body of a different "race"; however, it has been demonstrated only behaviorally for the implicit attitudes. Here, we investigated the implicit (racial IAT) and the neurophysiological (the N400 component of the event-related potentials for verbal stimuli that violated negative racial stereotypes) correlates of the embodiment-induced reduction of the implicit racial bias. After embodying a Black avatar, Caucasian participants had reduced implicit racial bias (IAT) but both groups showed the typical N400. This is the first evidence to suggest that virtual embodiment affects the evaluative component of the implicit biases but not the neurophysiological index of their cognitive component (i.e., stereotyping). This can inform interventions that promote inclusivity through the implicit/indirect procedures, such as embodiment.

Contact with grandparents and young people’s explicit and implicit attitudes toward older adults

BackgroundGiven the dramatic rise in population aging and widespread negative attitudes toward older people, it is necessary to understand the factors that affect age-related attitudes among young people in order to improve intergenerational solidarity and reduce ageism. The current study examined young people’s contact with their grandparents and attitudes toward older people on both explicit and implicit levels.MethodThe sample included 146 Chinese college students (Mage = 21.50 yrs, SD = 2.23, 101 females). Participants completed a questionnaire concerning contact with their grandparents(contact quantity and contact quality), perceived typicality of their grandparents, intergroup anxiety, inclusion of other in the self, and explicit attitudes toward older people (aged 65 years or older) in general. Participants were also invited to complete a single-category implicit association test (SC-IAT) to assess their implicit attitudes toward older people.ResultsThe findings indicated that both quantity and quality of contact with grandparents predicted better explicit attitudes toward older people, and contact effects were stronger when one’s grandparents were perceived as being typical of older adults. Contact quantity (not quality) was associated with more favorable implicit attitudes only when one’s grandparents were perceived as highly typical older adults. Contact effects on explicit attitudes were mediated by intergroup anxiety and inclusion of other in the self.ConclusionOur findings on the positive effects of contact with grandparents underscore the importance of promoting intergenerational contact within the family as a starting point to reduce prejudice toward older adults in age-segregated modern societies. Current results also provide insights on how to extend the benefits of grandparent-grandchild contact outside the family by promoting the perceived typicality of one’s grandparents.

Sport–gender stereotypes and their impact on impression evaluations

Sports have traditionally had gendered connotations in society and culture, resulting in solidified gender stereotypes that influence impression evaluations. China has a special gender social culture; however, how sport–gender stereotypes (SGS) influence the gender evaluation of people in China in the Global South is still unknown. This study obtained gender-typed sports and attribute adjectives and proved the existence of SGS through a pilot study (392 college students, n1 = 207, n2 = 185) and then used two studies to explore the influence of both explicit and implicit SGS on evaluations and compared the differences between these stereotypes and general gender stereotypes. Study 1 (395 college students, n1a = 192, n1b = 203) examined the explicit level using a questionnaire experiment. The results of two experiments showed that (1) stereotype-consistent targets were more masculine or feminine in correspondence with their gender, while stereotype-inconsistent targets had higher anti-gender traits; and (2) the inclusion of stereotype-consistent sports activities led targets to be evaluated as more masculine, while stereotype-inconsistent sport activities showed gender evaluation reversal, especially for women. Study 2 (103 college students, n2a = 61, n2b = 42) measured the implicit attitudes using the Implicit Association Test. The results of two experiments showed that (1) implicit evaluations of stereotype-consistent targets were associated faster than stereotype-inconsistent targets and (2) the inclusion of gender-typed sports weakened implicit gender evaluations. In conclusion, this is the first quantitative study to explore the unique effect of SGS on individual evaluations and how they differ from general gender stereotypes in the Chinese context. These findings could provide valuable insights for research and the application of sports social science and physical education.

Video games and attitude change: A meta-analysis

Video games are increasingly portraying many topics that we face in our everyday lives. Yet we have only limited evidence about the way narrative games affect how we think about the topics they depict; in other words, about the link between these games and attitude change. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of video games’ effect on attitudinal change. The findings suggest that narrative video games affect players’ attitudes towards the topics depicted in games. This effect was present in studies focused on changes in both implicit (g = 0.36, k = 18) and explicit attitudes (g = 0.24, k = 101). Longer intervention duration and game mechanics such as stereotyping and meaningful feedback resulted in larger implicit attitude change. Regarding the robustness of the underlying evidence, half of the included studies were judged to be at high risk of bias. On the other hand, the impact of publication bias in this literature was found to be negligible. Altogether, this meta-analysis provides evidence that video games shape how we think about topics they represent.

Oppressed Groups Engender Implicit Positivity: Seven Demonstrations Using Novel and Familiar Targets.

Across seven preregistered studies in online adult volunteer samples (N = 5,323), we measured implicit evaluations of social groups following exposure to historical narratives about their oppression. Although the valence of such information is highly negative and its interpretation was left up to participants, implicit evaluations of oppressed groups shifted toward positivity, including in designs involving fictitious, well-known, and even self-relevant targets. The sole deviation from this pattern was observed in an experiment using a vignette about slavery in the United States, in response to which neither White nor Black Americans exhibited any change in implicit race attitudes. In line with propositional perspectives, these findings suggest that implicit evaluations (including, notably, implicit evaluations of well-known and self-relevant social groups) tend to change toward positivity in response to extremely negative information involving past oppression. However, macro-level phenomena, such as public awareness of histories of oppression, can modulate such updating processes.

Right amygdala and caudate activation patterns predict implicit attitudes toward people with autism spectrum disorders and physical disabilities, respectively.

Attitudes toward people with disabilities tend to be negative, regardless of the visibility of the disorder traits. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience stigmatization that is rooted in negative attitudes or prejudice toward them because of their social awkwardness. The neural underpinnings of attitudes toward people with disabilities remain unclear. In this study, we focused on implicit attitudes toward people with ASD and physical disabilities, which are more visible than ASD, and investigated whether implicit attitudes were predicted by using neural activity with multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) in the prejudice network. Thirty-six, right-handed, Japanese, university students without disabilities participated. Two implicit association tests (IAT) toward people with ASD and physical disabilities revealed negative implicit attitudes. In the MRI scanner, participants performed a one-back task by using the same picture sets of IATs to examine their neural responses toward people with ASD and physical disabilities. According to the MVPA results, activation patterns of the right amygdala and right caudate significantly predicted implicit attitudes toward people with ASD and physical disabilities, respectively. These results suggest that implicit attitudes toward ASD and physical disabilities can be predicted by using neural signals from different regions within the prejudice network.

Factors Predicting Implicit Attitudes Toward Obesity: Evidence from Project Implicit (2017-2021)

This article explored the effects of gender, BMI, age, education level, and year on peoples implicit attitudes toward obesity between 2017 and 2021. We used data from the Project Implicit demonstration website, which consists of the implicit association test and demographic information. The results of the study indicated that people held implicitly negative attitudes toward obesity. A regression model found that the above five factors significantly predicted peoples negative implicit attitudes toward obesity, and their contributions were ranked from highest to lowest: BMI, age, gender, education level, and year of completing the implicit association test. Among them, the lower the BMI, the older the age, and the lower the education level, the stronger the implicit negative attitudes toward obesity. In addition, women displayed stronger negative attitudes toward obesity than men. Peoples implicitly negative attitudes toward obesity gradually decreased as the years passed. This study informs us of the factors that influence socially implicit attitudes, contributes to the development of the dual process theory, and can make recommendations to guide society in reducing negative attitudes toward obesity, with both theoretical and practical implications.

Generation Z's attitudes toward virtual tourism: the impact of implicit and explicit attitudes

PurposeThe aim of this study is to evaluate the implicit and explicit attitudes of Generation Z (Gen Z) individuals toward the experience of visiting and getting to know traditional or virtual museums.Design/methodology/approachTwo studies were conducted. The first study assesses the implicit attitudes of Gen Z individuals through Implicit Association Tests (IAT) toward the experience of visiting traditional versus virtual museums. Considering the results of the study one, the second study proposes and validates a conceptual model through PLS-SEM approach about the explicit attitudes of this generation toward virtual museums.FindingsIn the first study, it was found that virtual museums are more successful at engaging and immersing participants than traditional museums for Gen Z. The second study emphasized the significance of meeting Gen Z expectations and ensuring effortless access to information in virtual experiences as this can lead to increased satisfaction and inspiration among this generation.Originality/valueThe originality of this study lies in its focus on Gen Z's attitudes toward virtual museums and the use of both implicit and explicit attitude measures to gain a comprehensive understanding of these attitudes. An interesting aspect emerges from the implicit attitudes displayed by Gen Z, indicating their preference for virtual museums as more captivating compared to traditional ones.

On the influence of implicit race attitudes on explicit trustworthiness judgments: An investigation of the perceivers and targets' race and gender intersection

ABSTRACT People judge strangers’ trustworthiness based on their facial appearance, but these judgments are biased. Biases towards Black individuals may stem from implicit pro-White attitudes. However, previous studies have not explored if these effects extend to different members within the same social group, like women instead of men, nor considered the role of the perceiver’s multiple social group memberships. Therefore, we investigated how the perceiver’s and target’s gender influence implicit and explicit biases in trustworthiness judgments of Black and White individuals. Our study included 309 participants, split between Black and White men and women, who completed trustworthiness judgment tasks and the Implicit Association Test (IAT). We found that implicit pro-White attitudes predicted trustworthiness disparities only for White individuals. Interestingly, implicit pro-White attitudes also correlated with explicit pro-men attitudes, but only among male participants. This study underscores the importance of considering multiple social group memberships when studying prejudice in trustworthiness judgments.

Measuring Implicit STEM and Math Attitudes in Adolescents Online with the Brief Implicit Association Test

Despite societal efforts toward enhancing gender equality, females are still underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). Prominent explanations draw on gender differences in attitudes about STEM (with females holding more negative attitudes than males), which result from the gender stereotype that STEM is a male domain. While a lot of research has focused on explicit attitudes, little is known about implicit attitudes toward STEM. The present research sought to examine implicit attitudes among adolescents, and how they relate to other STEM cognitions. We measured implicit attitudes about the STEM concept as a whole, and about math in particular. For this purpose, we developed two Brief Implicit Associations Tests (BIATs) and administered them online in a sample of adolescents (N = 517). We additionally measured a variety of self-reported motivational and social-psychological variables (interest, aspiration, self-concept of ability, and sense of belonging to the math and STEM community, respectively), which previous research has identified as factors contributing to the gender gap in STEM participation. Our findings confirm the reliability and validity of both the STEM BIAT and the Math BIAT. Moreover, implicit STEM attitudes predicted interest in and aspiration for STEM, self-concept of STEM ability, and sense of belonging to the STEM community. Similarly, implicit math attitudes predicted interest in and aspiration for math, and sense of belonging to the math community (but not self-concept of math ability). Our findings confirm that our novel online BIATs are efficient measurement tools of implicit attitudes in adolescents. Moreover, our findings underscore the significance of implicit attitudes in the STEM domain.

Differences in Implicit Attitudes in West and East Germans as Measured by the Go/NoGo Association Task and Event-related EEG Potentials.

Implicit social cognition refers to attitudes and stereotypes that may reside outside conscious awareness and control but that still affect human behavior. In particular, the implicit favoritism of an ingroup, to which an individual belongs, as opposed to an outgroup, to which the individual does not belong, characterized as ingroup bias, is of interest and is investigated here. We used a Go/NoGo association task (GNAT) and behavioral and electroencephalographic (event-related EEG potential [ERP] analysis) measures to investigate the implicit bias toward cities in East Germany, West Germany, and Europe, in 16 individuals each from West and East Germany (mixed gender, M age = 24). The GNAT assesses an individual's Go and NoGo responses for a given association between a target category and either pole (positive or negative) of an evaluative dimension. Behavioral measures revealed slightly faster reaction times to the combination of European city names and negative, as compared with positive, evaluative words in both groups. ERP analysis showed an increased negativity at 400-800 ms poststimulus in the incongruent conditions of East German city/positive word pairings (in West Germans) and West German city/positive word pairings (in East Germans). An implicitly moderately negative evaluation of Europe by both groups was exhibited based on the behavioral data, and an increased level of conflict arising from the "incongruent" pairings (ie, as manifestation of an implicitly negative attitude toward East Germany in West Germans, and toward West Germany in East Germans) was exhibited based on the electrophysiological data.

Eyes can tell: Assessment of implicit attitudes toward AI art.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have significantly improved the abilities of machines. Human-unique abilities, such as art creation, are now being challenged by AI. Recent studies have investigated and compared people's attitudes toward human-made and AI-generated artworks. These results suggest that a negative bias may exist toward the latter. However, none of these previous studies has examined the extent of this bias. In this study, we investigate whether a bias against AI art can be found at an implicit level. Viewers' attitudes toward AI art were assessed using eye-tracking measures and subjective aesthetic evaluations. Visual attention and aesthetic judgments were compared between artworks categorized as human-made and AI-made. The results showed that although it was difficult for individuals to identify AI-generated artwork, they exhibited an implicit prejudice against AI art. Participants looked longer at paintings that they thought were made by humans. No significant effect of categorization of paintings was found in subjective evaluations. These findings suggest that although human and AI art may be perceived as having similar aesthetic values, an implicit negative bias toward AI art exists. Although AI can now perform creative tasks, artistic creativity is still considered a human prerogative.

Forced Prosocial Behaviors towards Robots Induce Cognitive Conflict

With the rising use of social robots, it is important to understand how to evaluate their effects on human cognition. Thus, we aimed to implicitly measure prosociality towards robots (i.e., the tendency to impart rewards to robots), using a conflict-monitoring paradigm. Here, participants completed a gambling task where they “Won” or “Lost” gambles. Afterwards, a computer assigned the outcome of their gamble to either themselves, or Cozmo, a social robot. Critically, participants had to confirm the computer's assignment using a keypress. If participants experienced conflict, we reasoned that confirming the assignment would be delayed. Results showed that participants experienced more conflict when they won a gamble but had to give it to Cozmo as shown by slower response times. These data suggest that participants experienced conflict when forced to be prosocial towards Cozmo and provide evidence that conflict monitoring can measure implicit attitudes towards robots.

To run or not to run? Differences in implicit attitudes towards running: An EEG study

ObjectiveTo understand the reasons for individuals do or do not exercise, we examined differences in implicit (affective and instrumental) attitudes between runners and non-runners. MethodsIn conjunction with electroencephalography (EEG) technology, 31 participants completed the affective and instrumental implicit associations test (IAT). ResultsBehavioural results showed that runners had more positive implicit (affective and instrumental) attitudes than non-runners. EEG results further explained the underlying mechanisms for the differences, namely that runners had higher cortical functional connectivity in the compatible condition than in the incompatible condition, while non-runners had the opposite results. ConclusionsHigher levels of neural processing efficiency were required for runners to perceive affective expectations towards running. Furthermore, ERP indicators (N1 amplitudes of incompatible tasks) can be used as valid criteria for potentially predicting exercise. This contributed to understanding why individuals do or do not exercise. Further research should focus on the effects of implicit attitudes towards exercise.

Prejudice among egalitarians: The case of values and weight bias

AbstractMany domains of research suggest that high favourability to social power and low favourability to egalitarian ideals predict more prejudice against other groups. In the present article, we describe theory and evidence suggesting that the relations between power, egalitarianism and prejudice may be reversed for one group: fat men. Using both implicit and explicit measures, we found across four studies (N = 602) that target gender moderated the relation between values and attitude toward fat people. For male targets, implicitly but not explicitly measured positivity toward power (over egalitarian) values predicted significantly more spontaneous positive attitudes toward fat (over slim) people. Further, implicit attitude toward power (over egalitarian) values predicted the time‐pressured decision to choose a fat male. Together, the implicit evaluation of values allows us to identify processes in inter‐group attitudes and behaviours that would not be possible to detect using explicit measures of values alone.

Changing students’ explicit and implicit attitudes toward peers with disabilities: Effects of a curriculum-based intervention programme

Negative peer attitudes are a significant barrier to social participation of students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Although many intervention studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of interaction or disability awareness programmes in promoting positive peer attitudes, reliance on students’ self-reported attitudes is prone to social desirability bias and is unable to capture implicit prejudice. The present study examined changes in students’ explicit and implicit attitudes toward peers with disabilities after a curriculum-based intervention programme (“Prinzip Vielfalt”), which aims to promote an open-minded attitude toward human diversity. Teachers in 12 primary school classes in the experimental group (n = 195 students) used the programme for eight weeks, whereas a control group of 12 classes (n = 191 students) used no intervention. Students’ pre- and post-intervention attitudes were assessed using an adapted version of the Chedoke–McMaster Attitudes Towards Children with Handicaps Scale and a disability Implicit Association Test for children. Post-intervention analyses revealed a significant relative improvement in explicit attitudes toward peers with disabilities in the experimental group compared to the control group (b = 0.20, 95% CI = [0.03; 0.37]) but no change in implicit attitudes (b = -0.03, 95% CI = [-0.10; 0.03]). Thus, while the intervention positively affected self-reported attitudes, implicit negative associations were unchanged. Using explicit and implicit measures of attitudes and attitude changes among children can provide valuable insights into the mechanisms and effectiveness of different intervention strategies.