Implicit and Explicit Attitudes to Alcohol in Alcohol Dependent and Non-Alcohol Dependent Samples

Measures of implicit and explicit attitudes to alcohol have been used to predict drinking behavior. Early studies with the bipolar Implicit Association Test (IAT) indicated that heavy drinkers hold negative implicit attitudes to alcohol. More recent studies using the unipolar IAT have found that positive implicit attitudes to alcohol are associated with drinking behavior in samples of university students. The present study is the first to use a unipolar single target IAT to assess positive alcohol-related attitudes in two samples with alcohol dependency compared to a non-alcohol dependent control group. A group of recently detoxed alcohol dependent adults entering a treatment program (n?=?22), a group of alcohol dependent adults who had been in treatment for 3 months (n?=?22), and a group of age matched adults who had no history of alcohol dependence (n?=?22) were compared on a positive unipolar single target IAT and an explicit attitude measure. Results indicated that alcohol dependent participants showed stronger positive implicit attitudes, and stronger negative explicit associations compared to non-alcohol dependent participants, but there were no differences between the two groups with alcohol dependency. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of the IAT as an assessment tool for those undertaking treatment for alcohol problems and the implications for targeting unconscious attitudes to alcohol in a clinical setting.     

Novel attitudes can be faked on the Implicit Association Test

We asked participants to imagine that a researcher would provide them with positive or negative information about fictitious social groups. Half of the participants were asked to act in such a way that they would conform to the expectations of the researcher. The other participants were asked to behave in the manner opposite to what the researcher expected. Participants then completed an IAT designed to measure the newly formed attitudes toward the fictitious social groups. The direction of the IAT effect depended on the faking instructions. The results call for caution when using the IAT to study the development of implicit attitudes.     

作为情境变量的移情对暴力态度的影响

本研究将移情作为影响个体暴力态度的情境变量,通过对移情的启动来考察状态移情对暴力态度的影响。实验1在启动被试的移情感后,采用暴力IAT的方法考察被试内隐暴力态度的变化;实验2则在移情启动之后,用FMMU变态人格危险性评估问卷中的冲动倾向（VIO）考察被试的外显暴力的变化。实验结果显示,在启动被试的移情感后,我们没有发现被试的内隐和外显暴力态度发生显著变化,但经移情和性别的交互作用检验后发现,移情的启动减弱了男性被试的外显暴力态度,而对女性被试没有影响。研究结果表明,移情与暴力态度之间不存在内隐联结关系。根据以往的研究结果,移情对暴力态度的影响一是取决于意识层面的认知加工过程,二是与个体的特质性移情水平的高低有关。     

Fitness vs. fatness: Implicit bias towards obesity among fitness professionals and regular exercisers

ObjectivesSuccess of supported exercise programmes to tackle obesity appear to be shaped, in part, by co-exercisers’ beliefs. This study, therefore, aimed to assess implicit attitudes towards obesity among two key groups of people in a public exercise setting: fitness professionals offering exercise advice, and regular exercisers.DesignQuestionnaire survey.MethodsIn all, 57 fitness professionals and 56 regular exercisers were recruited from gyms across Central England. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, semantic differential measure of explicit beliefs and the implicit associations test (IAT). The IAT reveals unconscious attitudes of participants to implicit associations between target concepts (thin vs. fat) and attributes (good vs. bad). The attribute of motivated vs. lazy was adopted in the current study due to relevance in an exercise setting.ResultsEvidence of a strong anti-fat bias was found (p<.01) for both fitness professionals and regular exercisers on all implicit and explicit measures (good vs. bad; motivated vs. lazy). This bias was more pronounced for fitness professionals who themselves had never been overweight and who believed personal control dictated body weight. For regular exercisers, a higher level of anti-fat bias was found for females, younger participants and those who had never been overweight.ConclusionsThis study suggests that the guidance to support exercise, and combat obesity, may be compromised by the beliefs of those facilitating such programmes.     

Attitudes and the Implicit Association Test.

Three studies examined the relationship between the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and explicit attitudes. In the 1st and all subsequent studies, the lack of any correlation between the IAT and explicitly measured attitudes supports the view that the IAT is independent from explicit attitudes. Study 2 examined the relationships among the IAT, explicit attitudes, and behavior and found that the explicit attitudes predicted behavior but the IAT did not. Finally, in Study 3 it was found that the IAT was affected by exposing participants to new associations between attitude objects, whereas the explicit attitudes remained unchanged. Taken together, these results support an environmental association interpretation of the IAT in which IAT scores reflect the associations a person has been exposed to in his or her environment rather than the extent to which the person endorses those evaluative associations.     

Creating distinct implicit and explicit attitudes with an illusory correlation paradigm

Two studies used an illusory correlation procedure to test whether distinct implicit and explicit evaluations can result from the same learning episode. All participants learned twice as much about the qualities of one group (majority) than another (minority). In one condition, the ratio of positive to negative information was equal between groups. In other conditions, the majority group showed proportionally more positive qualities than the minority group, or vice versa. Participants in the pro-majority and pro-minority conditions formed both implicit and explicit attitudes consistent with the attitude induction. Participants in the illusory correlation condition showed the expected preference for the majority group (the illusory bias), but showed no implicit preference, suggesting distinct influences on implicit and explicit attitude formation. The effects are consistent with dual-process models in which implicit attitudes reflect accounting of covariation and explicit attitudes reflect interpretative judgments of that covariation.     

The influence of experimentally created extrapersonal associations on the Implicit Association Test

We examined the influence of extrapersonal associations (Olson & Fazio, 2004)—associations that neither form the basis of the attitude nor become activated automatically in response to the object—on the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) by experimentally creating both attitudes and extrapersonal associations. The results revealed that participants who were given extrapersonal information that was inconsistent with their own attitudes were affected by this information when they later performed an IAT. They exhibited significantly reduced IAT scores compared to participants who were provided attitude-consistent extrapersonal information. This attenuation of the IAT effect occurred despite the fact that participants rated the source of the attitude-inconsistent extrapersonal information as irrational and foolish. On the other hand, the extrapersonal associations did not influence a subliminal priming measure in Experiment 1, nor a personalized version of the IAT (Olson & Fazio, 2004) in Experiment 2. These measures proved sensitive to the attitude, regardless of the congruency of the extrapersonal information.     

Implicit Attitudes Toward Arab-Muslims and the Moderating Effects of Social Information

Three studies examined the relative valence and strength of implicit attitudes toward Arab-Muslims using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) while exploring the moderation of such implicit effects. Studies have suggested that repeated exposure to information associating members of a social group (e.g., Arab-Muslims) with evaluative attributes (e.g., terrorism) might create automatic attitudes toward them. Consistent with this notion, the IAT results indicated strong implicit preference for White over Arab-Muslim, whereas the magnitude of such a bias was substantially diminished when assessed by explicit measures (Study 1). It is also interesting to note that participants exhibited implicit preference for Black over Arab-Muslim when measured by the IAT, whereas no difference was found between the 2 groups in stimulus familiarity and in explicit attitudes (Studies 2 and 3). However, such implicit effects were moderated when participants were exposed to positive information about Arab-Muslims (Study 3). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are further discussed.     

Patterns and Personality Correlates of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Christians and Muslims

We explored implicit and explicit attitudes toward Muslims and Christians within a predominantly Christian sample in the United States. Implicit attitudes were assessed with the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computer program that recorded reaction times as participants categorized names (of Christians and Muslims) and adjectives (pleasant or unpleasant). Participants also completed self-report measures of attitudes toward Christians and Muslims, and some personality constructs known to correlate with ethnocentrism (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, impression management, religious fundamentalism, intrinsic-extrinsic-quest religious orientations). Consistent with social identity theory, participants' self-reported attitudes toward Christians were more positive than their self-reported attitudes toward Muslims. Participants also displayed moderate implicit preference for Christians relative to Muslims. This IAT effect could also be interpreted as implicit prejudice toward Muslims relative to Christians. A slight positive correlation between implicit and explicit attitudes was found. As self-reported anti-Arab racism, social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, and religious fundamentalism increased, self-reported attitudes toward Muslims became more negative. The same personality variables were associated with more positive attitudes toward Christians relative to Muslims on the self-report level, but not the implicit level.     

Children's alcohol cognitions prior to drinking onset: discrepant patterns from implicit and explicit measures

Prior to drinking onset, children report stronger negative versus positive beliefs on self-report alcohol expectancy questionnaires, with some attenuation of this negativity as they transition into adolescence. Traditional alcohol expectancy assessments, however, capture endorsement of deliberative propositions about drinking outcomes. Measurement of implicit alcohol associations may elucidate automatic evaluations, clarifying the role of nondeliberative cognition in the initiation of alcohol use among youth. Few studies have assessed implicit alcohol cognition among children and younger adolescents, with inconsistent findings regarding the nature of these automatic associations within and between age groups. Eighty-nine 3rd and 4th graders and 91 7th and 8th graders completed an alcohol expectancy measure and two unipolar alcohol Implicit Association Tests (IAT) measuring positive and negative alcohol associations independently. On the explicit measure older compared with younger participants rated positive drinking outcomes as more likely and negative outcomes as less likely. Older compared with younger students were also more neutral/moderate in their evaluations of positive drinking outcomes. On the IATs, scores for the full sample indicated negative alcohol associations, and Negative IAT scores were higher for older compared with younger participants. However, the valence of implicit alcohol associations was qualified by the order of explicit versus implicit assessment; for those who completed the IATs prior to the explicit expectancy measure, alcohol associations were positive. Findings replicate and extend prior research conducted with preonset youth. Implications regarding the role of automatic and controlled processes in drinking onset and directions for future work on children's alcohol cognition are discussed.     

Predicting the Vote through Implicit and Explicit Attitudes: A Field Research

Using the data collected by Itanes on a sample of the Italian population, representative according to the main sociodemographic variables, we analyzed the relations between voting intention, explicit and implicit political attitudes, and voting behavior. Participants (N = 1,377) were interviewed twice, both before and after the 2006 Italian National Election. The implicit attitudes (measured using the IAT) were substantially as effective as voting intention, and more effective than the explicit attitudes towards the main Italian political leaders, in forecasting the Election official results. When used to predict participants' voting behavior, the IAT added a significant, although slight, power to voting intention and explicit attitude. Inconsistency between explicit and implicit attitudes exerted a negative influence on the probability of having decided one's voting behavior in the preelectoral poll; however, among undecided participants, it did not significantly influence the probability of delaying one's voting decision and that of actually casting a valid vote. Limits and possible developments of this research are discussed.     

Simultaneous learning of different regularities in sequence learning tasks: limits and characteristics

Two experiments are reported which were designed to investigate the generality and the power of the mechanisms underlying sequence learning. In both experiments, participants reacted to systematic sequences of tones. They were informed that there was a tone systematicity. Participants were not told that the interval between a response to a tone and the onset of the subsequent tone (response-signal interval, RSI) also varied according to a fixed regularity. Experiment 1 showed that the unattended RSIs were learned when they were uniquely related to the tone sequence, but not when the relation was ambiguous. Experiment 2 showed that, on the basis of the traditional reaction time performance measure, participants who learned the RSIs by attending to their systematicity could not be distinguished from those in an incidental learning condition in which the RSI systematicity was unattended. However, a model-based analysis of the processes contributing to judgements about the event sequences suggested that the two groups had acquired qualitatively different knowledge. Received: 3 March 2000 / Accepted: 2 November 2000     

Reducing the influence of extrapersonal associations on the Implicit Association Test: personalizing the IAT

The authors argue that the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A.G. Greenwald, D.E. McGhee, & J.L.K. Schwartz, 1998) can be contaminated by associations that do not contribute to one's evaluation of an attitude object and thus do not become activated when one encounters the object but that are nevertheless available in memory. The authors propose a variant of the IAT that reduces the contamination of these "extrapersonal associations." Consistent with the notion that the traditional version of the IAT is affected by society's negative portrayal of minority groups, the "personalized" IAT revealed relatively less racial prejudice among Whites in Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiments 3 and 4, the personalized IAT correlated more strongly with explicit measures of attitudes and behavioral intentions than did the traditional IAT. The feasibility of disentangling personal and extrapersonal associations is discussed.     

Drinking without thinking: an implicit measure of alcohol motivation predicts failure to control alcohol use

Addiction is characterized by dyscontrol - substance use despite intentions to restrain. Using a sample of at-risk drinkers, the present study examined whether an implicit measure of alcohol motivation (the Implicit Association Test [IAT]; Greenwald, A.G., McGhee, D.E., & Schwartz, J.L.K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480) would predict dyscontrol of alcohol use. Participants completed an IAT and, to elicit motivation to restrain alcohol use, were instructed that greater consumption in a taste test would impair performance on a later task for which they could win a prize. All participants viewed aversive slides and then completed a thought-listing task. Participants either exerted self-control by suppressing negative affect and thoughts regarding the slides or did not exert self-control. Post-manipulation, the groups did not differ in mood, urge to drink or motivation to restrain consumption. During the subsequent taste test, participants whose self-control resources were depleted consumed more alcohol than did those in the control group. Additionally, the IAT, but not an explicit measure of alcohol motivation, more strongly predicted alcohol use when self-control resources were depleted. The results indicate that the IAT may have utility in predicting dyscontrolled alcohol use.     

Not all automatic associations are created equal: How implicit normative evaluations are distinct from implicit attitudes and uniquely predict meaningful behavior

We propose a new construct (implicit normative evaluations) that purports to measure automatic associations about societal evaluations. We develop a new measure of this construct based on a modification of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and describe how it is related to but not redundant with implicit attitudes and explicit normative evaluations. Study 1 provided evidence that implicit normative evaluations and implicit attitudes uniquely predicted evaluations measured by the traditional IAT. Study 2 demonstrated that Asian-Canadian immigrants' implicit normative evaluations toward older people became more negative the longer they were in Canada. Study 3 found that engineering students' (both men and women) implicit normative evaluations toward female engineers became more negative as they were exposed to engineering and that for women these negative normative evaluations predicted their intention to drop out of engineering. Study 4 demonstrated that implicit normative evaluations predicted the speed at which participants decide to “shoot” an African Canadian target on a shooter bias task (Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002). Finally, in Study 5, an experimental manipulation of an audience's reaction to racist jokes targeting people from the Middle East affected implicit normative evaluations about this group and that these implicit normative evaluations in turn affected discrimination. The implications of these results for the importance of social influence and culture in shaping thoughts and behavior are discussed.     

内隐自尊与外显自尊的关系:多重内隐测量的视角

本研究以102名大学生为被试,从多重内隐测量的视角出发,运用内隐联想测验（IAT）、Go／No-go联想任务（GNAT）和外部情绪性Simon任务（EAST）三种实验程序对内隐自尊及其特性进行了测量和研究,同时运用结构方程建模对内隐自尊和外显自尊的结构关系进行了探讨。结果表明：（1）IAT、GNAT和EASI这三种基于反应时范式的内隐自尊测量方法是有效的,均能有效检测出内隐自尊效应,内隐自尊的特性表现为个体倾向于将自我与积极属性或事物相联,将他人与消极属性或事物相联;（2）内隐自尊与外显自尊是分离的结构,两者是相对独立的两个自我评价系统,支持内隐自尊和外显自尊的两维结构说;（3）双重态度模型和信息加工双过程模型两种理论模型都可以解释内隐自尊和外显自尊的分离现象。     

What goes well with physics? Measuring and altering the image of science

Background. In view of the shortage of students majoring in science, we examined the image of physics in terms of students' implicit, automatic associations with physics. Aims. To describe the specific image of physics that might alienate students (difficulty, masculinity, heteronomy) and test an intervention for altering the image. Samples. In Study 1 the sample consisted of 63 school students (11th grade) and in Study 2 the sample consisted of 71 undergraduates. Methods. Study 1 measured participants' implicit associations between physics (relative to English) and the image dimensions of difficulty, masculinity and heteronomy, implicit attitudes towards and identification with physics using latency data (Implicit Association Test; IAT) and explicit attitudes using a questionnaire. Study 2 was an experimental treatment that required reading a text (treatment group) that emphasized the importance of discourse and creativity for science versus a school textbook for physics (control group). Dependent variables: implicit attitudes (IAT). Results. Students in Study 1 associated physics (relative to English) more easily with words referring to difficulty (than to ease), to males (than to females), to heteronomy (than to self‐realization), to unpleasantness (relative to pleasant words) and to others (relative to words referring to self). The three image aspects of difficulty, masculinity and heteronomy predicted explicit attitudes. Participants in the treatment group in Study 2 showed a significant reduction of the IAT effects compared to the control group. Conclusions. The findings indicate that students' negative explicit attitudes towards physics coincide with negative implicit associations about physics. An intervention addressing the alteration of implicit associations proved to be fruitful. Implications for science education are discussed.     

Do negative implicit associations indicate negative attitudes? Social explanations moderate whether ostensible “negative” associations are prejudice-based or empathy-based

The present work challenges the idea that implicit evaluative associations with outgroups necessarily provide information about negative or prejudiced attitudes. We argue that the manner in which one explains outgroup status and action shapes whether one's implicit “negative” associations are prejudice-based or empathy-based. Four studies are consistent with this possibility. Study 1 suggests that whereas implicit “negative” associations are predictive of negative explicit attitudes among those who reject external explanations for African American status and action, such implicit “negativity” predicts positive explicit attitudes among those who endorse external explanations. Study 2 provides experimental evidence that the provision of external explanations results in the formation of implicit “negative” associations that are predictive of compassionate responding. Study 3 provides more direct support for the idea that implicit “negative” associations are empathy-based among external explainers by showing that such “negative” associations are positively correlated with a measure of dispositional empathy-proneness. Finally, Study 4 demonstrates that IAT “negativity” is associated with automatic activation of empathy-related associations among those who strongly endorse external explanations. Discussion centers on the importance of considering factors—such as social explanations—that may moderate whether implicit “negativity” is prejudice-based or empathy-based.     

Understanding and using the implicit association test: V. measuring semantic aspects of trait self‐concepts

Implicit Association Tests (IATs) often reveal strong associations of self with positive rather than negative attributes. This poses a problem in using the IAT to measure associations involving traits with either positive or negative evaluative content. In two studies, we employed non‐bipolar but evaluatively balanced Big Five traits as attribute contrasts and explored correlations of IATs with positive (e.g. sociable vs. conscientious) or negative (e.g. reserved vs. chaotic) attributes. Results showed (a) satisfactory internal consistencies for all IATs, (b) explicit–explicit and implicit–implicit correlations that were moderate to high and comparable in strength after both were corrected for attenuation and (c) better model fit for latent variable models that linked the implicit and explicit measures to distinct latent factors rather to the same factor. Together, the results suggest that IATs can validly assess the semantic aspect of trait self‐concepts and that implicit and explicit self‐representations are, although correlated, also distinct constructs. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.