Implicit Evaluations Research Articles

The impact of virtual reality on implicit racial bias and mock legal decisions.

Implicit racial biases are one of the most vexing problems facing current society. These split-second judgments are not only widely prevalent, but also are notoriously difficult to overcome. Perhaps most concerning, implicit racial biases can have consequential impacts on decisions in the courtroom, where scholars have been unable to provide a viable mitigation strategy. This article examines the influence of a short virtual reality paradigm on implicit racial biases and evaluations of legal scenarios. After embodying a black avatar in the virtual world, participants produced significantly lower implicit racial bias scores than those who experienced a sham version of the virtual reality paradigm. Additionally, these participants more conservatively evaluated an ambiguous legal case, rating vague evidence as less indicative of guilt and rendering more Not Guilty verdicts. As the first experiment of its kind, this study demonstrates the potential of virtual reality to address implicit racial bias in the courtroom setting.

The Relationship of Explicit-Implicit Evaluative Discrepancy to Exercise Dropout in Middle-Aged Adults.

Discrepancies between automatically activated associations (i.e.,implicit evaluations) and explicit evaluations of motives (measured with a questionnaire) could lead to greater information processing to resolve discrepancies or self-regulatory failures that may affect behavior. This research examined the relationship of health and appearance exercise-related explicit-implicit evaluative discrepancies, the interaction between implicit and explicit evaluations, and the combined value of explicit and implicit evaluations (i.e.,the summed scores) to dropout from a yearlong exercise program. Participants (N = 253) completed implicit health and appearance measures and explicit health and appearance motives at baseline, prior to starting the exercise program. The sum of implicit and explicit appearance measures was positively related to weeks in the program, and discrepancy between the implicit and explicit health measures was negatively related to length of time in the program. Implicit exercise evaluations and their relationships to oft-cited motives such as appearance and health may inform exercise dropout.

Graphic cigarette pack warnings do not produce more negative implicit evaluations of smoking compared to text-only warnings.

Graphic warnings (GWs) on cigarette packs are widely used internationally with the aim of reducing smoking behavior. In the current study, we investigated whether GWs influence implicit evaluations of smoking, a potential moderator of smoking behavior, as measured with an Implicit Association Test (IAT). Results showed that viewing a GW did not produce more negative implicit evaluations of smoking for daily smokers, occasional smokers, or non-smokers, compared to viewing a text-only warning. If anything, effects were in the direction of evaluations of smoking being more positive after certain participants (i.e., daily and occasional smokers) viewed a GW. We also did not find any beneficial effects of GWs on explicit evaluations of smoking. These results contrast with the observation that non-smokers and occasional smokers (but not daily smokers) believed that GWs would be more effective than the text-only warnings. We discuss implications and limitations of these findings and provide recommendations for improving the effectiveness of cigarette pack warnings on implicit evaluations.

Implicit evaluations about driving skills predicting driving performance

Self-reported measures of driving skills have the potential shortcomings of the general self-report methodology such as social responding and self-enhancement biases. In the present study, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) procedure was adapted to measure the implicit evaluations of driving skills. The performance of IAT and an explicit, self-report measure of driving skills were compared in predicting driver behaviors and performance. Ninety-one Turkish male drivers participated in the study. The results showed that the implicit test and the self-reported driving skills scale showed different patterns of relationships with the outcome measures in the regression analyses. In addition, the implicit measure of driving skills moderated the relationship between self-reported driving skills and some of the outcome measures used in the current study. These results support the need to use the implicit measures in addition to self-report measures to better understand drivers evaluations of their driving skills, which has the potential to influence their risky driving.

Implicit–explicit attitudinal discrepancy and the investigation of language attitude change in progress

ABSTRACTSocio-psychological research has frequently reported low correlations between explicit and implicit attitude measures for a range of socially sensitive topics. There is mounting evidence that implicit and explicit evaluations do not change at the same rate and thus any implicit–explicit attitudinal discrepancy (IED) may indicate attitude change in progress. However, researchers have yet to investigate whether differences between implicit and explicit attitudes towards language use can determine the direction of any language attitude change underway; somewhat surprising given recent evidence indicating that community language attitude change can result in micro-level language change over time. The present study employed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and self-report attitude scale to measure the relationship between 90 English nationals’ implicit and explicit ratings of Northern English and Southern English speech in England. Multivariate analysis demonstrated significant IED, providing evidence of language attitude change in progress, led by younger females, with explicit attitudes changing more rapidly towards a greater tolerance of the English spoken in the north of England. The paper discusses the potential contribution of investigating implicit and explicit language attitudes to help account for the persistence of deeply embedded linguistic prejudice, as well as to measure language attitude change in progress.

Implicit and Explicit Evaluation of Visual Symmetry as a Function of Art Expertise.

In perception, humans typically prefer symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns. Yet, little is known about differences in symmetry preferences depending on individuals’ different past histories of actively reflecting upon pictures and patterns. To address this question, we tested the generality of the symmetry preference for different levels of individual art expertise. The preference for symmetrical versus asymmetrical abstract patterns was measured implicitly, by an Implicit Association Test (IAT), and explicitly, by a rating scale asking participants to evaluate pattern beauty. Participants were art history and psychology students. Art expertise was measured using a questionnaire. In the IAT, art expertise did not alter the preference for symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns. In contrast, the explicit rating scale showed that with higher art expertise, the ratings for the beauty of asymmetrical patterns significantly increased, but, again, participants preferred symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns. The results are discussed in light of different theories on the origins of symmetry preference. Evolutionary adaptation might play a role in symmetry preferences for art experts similarly to nonexperts, but experts tend to emphasize the beauty of asymmetrical depictions, eventually considering different criteria, when asked explicitly to indicate their preferences.

Rapid Objective Assessment of Contrast Sensitivity and Visual Acuity With Sweep Visual Evoked Potentials and an Extended Electrode Array.

Sweep visual evoked potentials (sVEPs) provide an implicit, objective, and sensitive evaluation of low-level visual functions such as visual acuity and contrast sensitivity. For practical and traditional reasons, sVEPs in ophthalmologic examinations have usually been recorded over a single or a limited number of electrodes over the medial occipital region. Here we examined whether a higher density of recording electrodes improves the estimation of individual low-level visual thresholds with sVEPS, and to which extent such testing could be streamlined for clinical application. To this end, we tested contrast sensitivity and visual acuity in 26 healthy adult volunteers with a 68-electrode electroencephalogram (EEG) system. While the most sensitive electrophysiologic response was found at the traditional medial occipital electrode Oz in a small majority of individuals, it was found at neighboring electrodes for the remaining participants. At the group level, lower spatial frequencies were also associated with right lateralized responses. More generally, visual function was evaluated more sensitively based on EEG recorded at the most sensitive electrode defined individually for each participant. Our data suggest that recording over seven posterior electrodes while limiting the testing session to less than 15 minutes ensures a sensitive and consistent estimation of acuity and contrast sensitivity threshold estimates in every individual. The present study shows that sampling from a larger number of posterior scalp electrodes is relevant to optimize visual function assessment and could be achieved efficiently in the time-constrained clinical setting.

Implicit attitudes toward eating stimuli differentiate eating disorder and non-eating disorder groups and predict eating disorder behaviors.

The current study tested whether people with and without eating disorders (EDs) varied in their implicit attitudes toward ED-relevant stimuli. Additionally, the study tested whether implicit evaluations of ED-relevant stimuli predicted ED symptoms and behaviors over a 4-week interval. Participants were people without EDs (N = 85) and people seeking treatment for EDs (N = 92). All participants completed self-report questionnaires and a version of the affect misattribution procedure (AMP) at baseline. The AMP indexed implicit evaluations of average body stimuli, eating stimuli, and ED-symptom stimuli. Participants with EDs completed weekly follow-up measures of ED symptoms and behaviors for 4 weeks. Contrary to predictions, the anorexia nervosa (AN) group did not differ from the no ED group on implicit attitudes toward ED-symptom stimuli, and the bulimia nervosa (BN) group had less positive implicit attitudes toward ED-symptom stimuli relative to the no ED group. In line with predictions, people with AN and BN had more negative implicit attitudes toward average body and eating stimuli relative to the no ED group. In addition, among the ED group more negative implicit attitudes toward eating stimuli predicted ED symptoms and behaviors 4 weeks later, over and above baseline ED symptoms and behaviors. Taken together, implicit evaluations of eating stimuli differentiated people with AN and BN from people without EDs and longitudinally predicted ED symptoms and behaviors. Interventions that increase implicit liking of eating-related stimuli may reduce ED behaviors.

Evaluative conditioning: A brief computer-delivered intervention to reduce college student drinking

BackgroundRecent research suggests that a brief computer-delivered intervention based on evaluative conditioning (EC) can change the implicit evaluation of alcohol and reduce drinking behaviors among college students. We tested whether we could obtain similar findings in a high-powered preregistered study and whether hazardous drinking moderates these effects. MethodBefore the intervention, 122 French college students were screened for hazardous drinking using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). Implicit evaluation of alcohol was assessed before and immediately after the intervention using an Implicit Association Test (IAT). Drinking behavior was assessed before the intervention and approximately two weeks after using the TimeLine Follow Back (TLFB) method. The EC consisted of 120 trials of words (related to alcoholic beverages, soft drinks or neutral) paired with pictures (neutral, positive or negative). In the EC condition, alcohol-related words were systematically paired with negative pictures. In the control condition, alcohol-related words were systematically paired with neutral pictures. ResultsThe EC did not change the implicit evaluation of alcohol, Cohen's d = 0.01, 95CI [−0.35, 0.35]. However, the EC reduced drinking behavior, Cohen's d = 0.37, 95CI [0.01, 0.72]. This effect was independent of hazardous drinking behavior, but it was especially pronounced among participants with the most positive implicit evaluation of alcohol before the intervention. ConclusionThis preregistered study suggests that evaluative conditioning can successfully reduce drinking behavior among college students by 31% (compared to 4% in the control condition) without causing an immediate change in the implicit evaluation of alcohol.

Explaining Death by Tornado: Religiosity and the God-Serving Bias

Two self-report experiments examined how religiosity affects attributions made for the outcome of a tornado. Undergraduate students ( N = 533) and online adults ( N = 537) read a fictional vignette about a tornado that hits a small town in the United States. The townspeople met at church and prayed or prepared emergency shelters for three days before the tornado; either no one died or over 200 people died from the tornado. Participants made attributions of cause to God, prayer, faith, and worship. In both studies, individuals identifying as Christian made more attributions to God, prayer, faith, and worship, but only when no one died; when townspeople died, Christian participants made fewer attributions to God, prayer, faith, and worship (the God-serving bias). Individuals identifying as agnostic or atheist did not show this bias. Directions for future research in terms of implicit religious beliefs and normative evaluations of religion are discussed.

When and how do explicit measures of food craving predict implicit food evaluation? A moderated mediation model

Research findings about relationships between trait-like eating behaviors and implicit food evaluations have been inconsistent. This may be partially attributed to the state-dependent nature of implicit food evaluations. In the current studies, relationships between trait and state chocolate craving, current hunger, and implicit evaluation of chocolate were examined. In study 1 (n = 64; 70% females), neither trait nor state chocolate craving were directly associated with implicit evaluation of chocolate. However, higher state chocolate craving was associated with more positive implicit evaluation of chocolate when current hunger was high. A moderated mediation model revealed an indirect effect of trait chocolate craving on implicit evaluation of chocolate via state chocolate craving only in hungry participants. This moderated mediation model was replicated in a sample of female individuals (n = 66; study 2) and in a sample of children and adolescents (n = 146; 47% females; study 3). Results support previous reports in that implicit food evaluations are influenced by state-dependent variables such as current craving and hunger. Moreover, implicit food evaluations are influenced by trait-like eating behaviors as well, inasmuch as these give rise to states of high motivational needs.

Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is associated with impairments in both spontaneous and deliberative moral judgments

Implicit moral evaluations—spontaneous, unintentional judgments about the moral status of actions or persons—are thought to play a pivotal role in moral experience, suggesting a need for research to model these moral evaluations in clinical populations. Prior research reveals that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a critical area underpinning affect and morality, and patients with vmPFC lesions show abnormalities in moral judgment and moral behavior. We use indirect measurement and multinomial modeling to understand differences in implicit moral evaluations among patients with vmPFC lesions. Our model quantifies multiple processes of moral judgment: implicit moral evaluations in response to distracting moral transgressions (Unintentional Judgment), accurate moral judgments about target actions (Intentional Judgment), and a directional tendency to judge actions as morally wrong (Response Bias). Compared to individuals with non-vmPFC brain damage and neurologically healthy comparisons, patients with vmPFC lesions showed a dual deficit in processes of moral judgment. First, patients with vmPFC lesions showed reduced Unintentional Judgment about moral transgressions, but not about non-moral negative affective distracters. Second, patients with vmPFC lesions showed reduced Intentional Judgment about target actions. These findings highlight the utility of a formal modeling approach in moral psychology, revealing a dual deficit in multiple component processes of moral judgment among patients with vmPFC lesions.

Changing Deep-Rooted Implicit Evaluation in the Blink of an Eye: Negative Verbal Information Shifts Automatic Liking of Gandhi

It is often assumed that, once established, spontaneous or implicit evaluations are resistant to immediate change. Recent research contradicts this theoretical stance, showing that a person’s implicit evaluations of an attitude object can be changed rapidly in the face of new counterattitudinal information. Importantly, it remains unknown whether such changes can also occur for deep-rooted implicit evaluations of well-known attitude objects. We address this question by examining whether the acquisition of negative information changes implicit evaluations of a well-known positive historic figure: Mahatma Gandhi. We report three experiments showing rapid changes in implicit evaluations of Gandhi as measured with an affect misattribution procedure and evaluative priming task but not with an implicit association test (IAT). These findings suggest that implicit evaluations based on deep-rooted representations are subjective to rapid changes in the face of expectancy-violating information while pointing to limitations of the IAT for assessing such changes.

Burn! How implicit and explicit attitudes predict early adolescents’ “hot sauce” aggression toward classroom peers

The current study examined to what extent early adolescents’ implicit and explicit evaluations of a classmate predict (a) their own aggressive behavior toward that classmate and (b) their classmate’s aggressive behavior toward them. Implicit and explicit peer evaluations were assessed among 148 early adolescents (78 boys and 70 girls; Mage = 11.1 years) with an approach–avoidance task and a likeability rating. Adolescents’ aggression was measured by the number of grams of hot sauce administered to the peer in a “taste test.” The analyses with the actor–partner interdependence model showed that girls’ implicit attitude predicted aggression toward their partner and that boys’ implicit attitude predicted their partner’s aggression toward them. Explicit attitudes did not predict “hot sauce” aggression. The current study demonstrates that implicit evaluation of a peer can in fact be even more impactful than explicit evaluation in social interactions among peers.

Is the devil in the detail? Evidence for S-S learning after unconditional stimulus revaluation in human evaluative conditioning under a broader set of experimental conditions

ABSTRACTWhether valence change during evaluative conditioning is mediated by a link between the conditional stimulus (CS) and the unconditional stimulus (US; S-S learning) or between the CS and the unconditional response (S-R learning) is a matter of continued debate. Changing the valence of the US after conditioning, known as US revaluation, can be used to dissociate these accounts. Changes in CS valence after US revaluation provide evidence for S-S learning but if CS valence does not change, evidence for S-R learning is found. Support for S-S learning has been provided by most past revaluation studies, but typically the CS and US have been from the same stimulus category, the task instructions have suggested that judgements of the CS should be based on the US, and USs have been mildly valenced stimuli. These factors may bias the results in favour of S-S learning. We examined whether S-R learning would be evident when CSs and USs were taken from different categories, the task instructions were removed, and more salient USs were used. US revaluation was found to influence explicit US evaluations and explicit and implicit CS evaluations, supporting an S-S learning account and suggesting that past results are stable across procedural changes.

Motive-goal congruence moderates the use of automatic self-regulation.

We tested whether the fit between individuals' motives and goal properties predicts efficiency of implicit self-regulation. Participants' (German university students; Mage = 22; 64% female) implicit motives measurement (Multi-Motive Grid) was followed by assessment of implicit self-regulation in differently framed tasks. In Study 1 (N = 45), positive implicit evaluations of stimuli relating to an achievement goal (studying) were used as an indicator of implicit self-regulation. Study 2 (N = 70) framed a laboratory task as either achievement or power related, thus experimentally controlling the goal's properties, and assessed implicit evaluations for task-related stimuli with an evaluative priming paradigm. Study 3 (N = 67) contrasted playing a game framed as agency related (achievement, power) with a control condition. Implicit evaluations of task-related stimuli were assessed as an indicator of self-regulation with an approach/avoidance task. In Study 1, implicit positive evaluations of an achievement goal were positively related to participants' achievement motive. Because of similarities between achievement and power, implicit positive evaluations of task-related stimuli were positively related to the achievement motive in both conditions of Study 2. In Study 3, positive implicit evaluations of the task were positively related to the agency motives only in the agency condition. Congruence between individuals' implicit motives and goal properties boosts implicit self-regulation, thus identifying a promising predictor for success and failure in self-regulation that potentially mediates effects of goal-motive fit on goal pursuit.

Implicit ambivalence of significant others: Significant others trigger positive and negative evaluations

AbstractDespite the rich literature on implicit partner evaluations, there has been scant attention to a defining feature of significant other mental representations—their affective complexity. Recent findings (Zayas & Shoda, 2015), however, provide an empirical demonstration that significant others automatically and simultaneously activate positive and negative evaluations—a phenomenon we refer to as implicit ambivalence. A primary aim of this paper is to extend extant theory by elaborating on the features of the dyadic context that may contribute to the formation of implicit ambivalence. Particularly, drawing from research from relationship science, social cognition, and social neuroscience, we focus on the ability of significant others to dynamically and simultaneously confer rewards and threats, the attunement of perceivers to potential social rewards and social threats, and aspects of sense‐making of another person's mind that may give rise to implicit ambivalence. From this new perspective, implicit ambivalence is not a pathological or rare state. Quite the opposite, implicit ambivalence may be a normative, typical process, that is triggered even by people who are highly positive in one's network. We identify future directions for social cognition and relationship science.

Implicit evaluations and physiological threat responses in people with persistent low back pain and fear of bending

Background and aimsPain and protective behaviour are dependent on implicit evaluations of danger to the body. However, current assessment of perceived danger relies on self-report, on information of which the person is aware and willing to disclose. To overcome this limitation, attempts have been made to investigate implicit evaluation of movement-related threatening images in people with persistent low back pain (PLBP) and pain-related fear. Lack of specificity of the sample and stimuli limited those explorations. This study investigated implicit evaluations and physiological responses to images of tasks commonly reported as threatening by people with PLBP: bending and lifting. We hypothesized that people who differ in self-reported fear of bending with a flexed lumbar spine (fear of bending) would also differ in implicit evaluations and physiological responses. MethodsThis study used a convenience sample of 44 people (54% female) with PLBP, who differed in self-reported fear of bending. Participants completed a picture-viewing paradigm with pleasant, neutral and unpleasant images, and images of people bending and lifting with a flexed lumbar spine (‘round-back’) to assess physiological responses (eye-blink startle modulation, skin conductance). They also completed an implicit association test (IAT) and an affective priming task (APT). Both assessed implicit associations between (i) images of people bending/lifting with a flexed lumbar spine posture (‘round-back’ posture) or bending/lifting with a straight lumbar spine posture (‘straight-back’ posture), and (ii) perceived threat (safe vs. dangerous). ResultsAn implicit association between ‘danger’ and ‘round-back’ bending/lifting was evident in all participants (IAT (0.5, CI [0.3; 0.6]; p<0.001) and APT (24.2, CI [4.2; 44.3]; p=0.019)), and unrelated to self-reported fear of bending (IAT (r=−0.24, 95% CI [−0.5, 0.04], p=0.117) and APT (r=−0.00, 95% CI [−0.3, 0.3], p=0.985)). Levels of self-reported fear of bending were not associated with eye-blink startle (F(3, 114)=0.7, p=0.548) or skin conductance responses (F(3, 126)=0.4, p=0.780) to pictures of bending/lifting. ConclusionsContrary to our expectation, self-reported fear of bending was not related to physiological startle response or implicit measures. People with PLBP as a group (irrespective of fear levels) showed an implicit association between images of a round-back bending/lifting posture and danger, but did not display elevated physiological responses to these images. These results provide insight to the understanding of the relationship between pain and fear of movement. ImplicationsThe potential clinical implications of our findings are twofold. First, these results indicate that self-report measures do not always reflect implicit associations between particular movements and threat. Implicit association tasks may help overcome this limitation. Second, a lack of the predicted physiological and behavioural responses may reflect that the visualization of a threatening task by people in pain does not elicit the same physiological defensive responses measured in people with fear of specific objects. It may be necessary to expose the person to the actual movement to elicit threat-responses. Together, these results are consistent with current views of the role of ‘fear’ in the fear-avoidance model, in which a fear response may only be elicited when the threat is unavoidable.

Effects of Chocolate Deprivation on Implicit and Explicit Evaluation of Chocolate in High and Low Trait Chocolate Cravers.

Diet failures are often attributed to an increase in cravings for attractive foods. However, accumulating evidence shows that food cravings actually decrease during energy-restricting weight-loss interventions. The current study aimed at elucidating possible mechanisms that may explain how and under which circumstances food cravings in- or decrease during dieting. Specifically, decreases in food cravings during weight-loss diets may be due to effects of energy restriction (homeostatic changes) and to effects of avoiding specific foods (hedonic changes). Thus, we used a selective, hedonic deprivation (i.e., restricting intake of a specific food in the absence of an energy deficit) that precludes homeostatic changes due to energy restriction. Furthermore, interindividual differences in food craving experiences might affect why some individuals are more prone to experience cravings during dieting than others. Thus, we investigated whether a selective deprivation of chocolate would in- or decrease craving and implicit preference for chocolate as a function of trait-level differences in chocolate craving. Participants with high and low trait chocolate craving (HC, LC) refrained from consuming chocolate for 2 weeks but otherwise maintained their usual food intake. Both groups underwent laboratory assessments before and after deprivation, each including explicit (i.e., state chocolate craving) and implicit measures (i.e., Single Category Implicit Association Test, SC-IAT; Affect Misattribution Procedure, AMP). Results showed that hedonic deprivation increased state chocolate craving in HCs only. HCs also showed more positive implicit attitudes toward chocolate than LCs on the SC-IAT and the AMP irrespective of deprivation. Results help to disambiguate previous studies on the effects of dieting on food cravings. Specifically, while previous studies showed that energy-restricting diets appear to decrease food cravings, the current study showed that a selective, hedonic deprivation in the absence of an energy deficit increases food cravings. However, this effect can only be observed for individuals with high trait craving levels. Thus, if attractive foods are strictly avoided through a selective deprivation, HCs are at risk to experience craving bouts in the absence of an energy deficit. As implicit preference was unaffected by chocolate deprivation, strong implicit preference for chocolate likely characterize a stable mechanism that drives consumption in HCs.

Nonspecific Impact of Reflective Mind on Implicit Evaluative Processes: Effects of Experimental Manipulations and Selected Dispositional Factors

Nonspecific Impact of Reflective Mind on Implicit Evaluative Processes: Effects of Experimental Manipulations and Selected Dispositional Factors