Measuring implicit attitudes of 4-year-olds: the preschool implicit association test

The Preschool Implicit Association Test (PSIAT) is an adaptation of an established social cognition measure (IAT) for use with preschool children. Two studies with 4-year-olds found that the PSIAT was effective in evaluating (a) attitudes toward commonly liked objects (flowers = good) and (b) gender attitudes (girl = good or boy = good). The gender attitude PSIAT was positively correlated with corresponding explicit attitude measures and also children’s actual sex. The new implicit and explicit measures of gender attitudes demonstrated discriminant validity; each predicted variance in children’s gendered play activities beyond that predicted by the other. Discussion describes potential uses of the PSIAT to investigate development of societally significant attitudes and stereotypes at younger ages than are achievable with currently available methods.