Implicit Associations

Transcription

1 Implicit Associations INTRODUCTION If it s true that first impressions are the most lasting, then it makes no sense why we are able to change our mind so quickly and so often; in fact, a majority of people would probably deny that their first impression is truly permanent. Although this phrase clearly goes against most of what we know about ourselves and how we change our minds, the proverb remains unchanged. The reason is that, although we may not agree with this statement, it has been confirmed by psychologists by the results of multiple association tests, more specifically the Implicit Association Test (IAT). This test gives clear evidence that, most of the time, people have a hidden bias, based on a lasting first impression, even when they may strongly believe they do not harbor even the slightest prejudice. Through years of administering the test, the result is unanimous that while our explicit attitudes, or what we believe we feel and think in regards to something, seem to change easily and frequently, our hidden implicit attitudes run much deeper. Even when we change our minds and our explicit attitudes, our implicit associations remain the same from the time of our initial experience. Therefore, in order to better understand ourselves as humans, we must ask the questions: what implicit associations do we hold, and how can they be changed? IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT ATTITUDES As humans, we are constantly learning. We learn how to walk, how to speak, and how to conduct ourselves in a social setting, in addition to structured academic subjects. As children we depend on our parents, family members, and our siblings to act as our models. We are unsure of how to act, so we learn by imitating what we see others doing. As we get older, we gain the capacity to learn in an academic setting and at that point we rely on our teachers and mentors to teach us. However, we are not completely helpless at any of these points. Although lacking formal education, we are equipped with instincts that help us avoid behaviors that cause us harm; for example, touching a hot stove or the sharp end of a knife. In the same way, our brain is able to form complex opinions without consciously doing so. These opinions, however, are harder to avoid in the future because unlike the burn of a hot stove or the cut of a knife, their effects can go completely undetected, allowing us to assume they have no effect. However, these attitudes are not harmless or immediately forgotten. They actually provide a disposition to react favorably or unfavorably to a class of objects, (1) from that moment on, deciding how we will react to and what we will think of certain events and stimuli in the future. On a more scientific level, implicit cognitions are made when a stimuli is noticed, triggering a response by the person witnessing it. With implicit associations, this encounter is different than for ordinary stimuli because the subject mislabels it in a way that influences the judgment of either that stimulus or some other stimulus, (1). After that, an opinion is formed about how the original stimuli made the person feel. This could be a positive implicit association when the first experience had been a positive and accurate portrayal of the stimuli. In this case, implicit association would be a good thing because it would influence the person to have an honest and positive reaction to similar events in the future. On the other hand, if the subject misreads or misunderstands the original stimuli, they will form an incorrect bias that will negatively influence all of their future encounters with the stimuli. For

2 example, if while taking the subway for the first time, the subject witnesses a theft, her first impression of the subway will understandably be negative. Her implicit association then is that she runs the risk of being robbed if she chooses to use it. Although this is an unfair prejudice to hold, since the subject s first and only encounter had been negative it will be her lasting impression. The real problem with this kind of situation is that not only is that lasting first impression extremely difficult to reverse, but that the encounter may then cause the subject to conclude that comparable situations are equally dangerous. Let s consider again the previous example, only this time, the subject has overcome her fear of the subway either by bravery or simply by lack of other options. Over time and through experience, the subject has decided that her first impression was wrong and she is now fairly comfortable with using the subway. Although she knows there is still the slight chance of robbery, she is no longer convinced that she personally will be the victim. Despite the subject s change of heart, the implicit association still remains unchanged. Even though the subject may argue that her paranoia of theft on public transportation has vanished, implicit associations depend solely on first encounters. Therefore, this is simply a change of explicit association. An explicit association is based on more recent encounters and changes often as new events take place. Explicit associations can be better understood when the idea of schemas is considered. A schema is a cognitive tool that helps us organize and interpret information. Schemas can be thought of as a folder within a filing cabinet, each classifying and organizing events into categories that make sense to our brain. As everyday interactions present new information to us, the folders expand and our view of the world changes. Just as the schemas evolve day to day actions and experiences, our explicit attitudes and associations change as our schema folders expand. At some points, like right after the subject s initial encounter, initial and explicit attitudes may match up but it isn t uncommon for the explicit association to differ after the first encounter. The main difference between implicit and explicit association is simple; since explicit associations depend on our worldview and experiences, which are constantly changing, it only makes sense that it too can change constantly. On the other hand, since implicit associations depend solely on one concrete encounter, it doesn t change often. In general, implicit associations and explicit associations are all relative to the person experiencing them. Implicit associations are memories from past socialization or experiences that affect current thought and behavior without conscious awareness, (3). Even though there is usually no conscious awareness of their existence, they do affect actions directly. Implicit prejudice has been correlated with negative nonverbal behaviors, (3) such as unfriendliness and moodiness for no apparent reason. These reactions are subtle and harder for the subject to control than reactions that stem from an explicit association. Since explicit associations are generally obvious to the subject, conscious thought and speech stem from them. Despite the differences of how implicit and explicit associations are formed, they each affect our daily lives. Therefore we need to understand exactly what they are and how we can change them. IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST (IAT) The Implicit Association test was first introduced in 1998 by two professors; Anthony Greenwald and Mahzarin Banaji. In their test, they first prompted people to categorize words into two 2

3 groups: good and bad. Next they had the same people categorize pictures of faces into the categories white and black. After that they combined the four in two ways: white-good versus black-bad and white-bad versus black-good. What they found was that most people possessed an implicit association that made one portion of the test easier than the opposite section. They therefore concluded that most persons have deeply held negative associations with minority groups that can lead to subtle discrimination without conscious awareness, (3). However, this awareness isn t noticeable in everyday life even by onlookers so it is hard to get rid of these negative associations. This is one of the main reasons that racism and prejudice exist despite our improvements of acceptance and equal treatment of others. Today, over 250 different versions of the IAT exist, each testing a different bias in subjects ranging from presidents and weapons to race among others. Through the patterns found by the results of these tests, the existence of not only a single type of association bias but many different types of association biases have been found. In terms of race and prejudice, the IAT has been able to prove that how we feel about ourselves affects our views of others especially regarding race and prejudice. Mere ownership is just one of the examples of implicit association biases that the IAT has found. Mere ownership is the concept that just a simple sense of ownership of something is enough to create a positive implicit association. In experiments testing mere association, when a person was given four icons in a computer game and shown four icons that represent their opponent, their items are given higher ratings in a survey of an opposing group. Another theory related to implicit associations is the impact of in-group biases. An in-group bias is the tendency of humans to judge people of their own groups more leniently than people of another or of an opposing group, even when the people are all comparable. Despite the existence of many different biases, the most impacting one is the activation of implicit affiliation and rejection. In these, a person passes an implicit judgment of whether or not it would be more beneficial to get to know someone or to avoid them. Implicit affiliation and rejection exists in close relation to each person s implicit self-esteem. Implicit self-esteem, in fact, is the implicit attitude that creates the natural desire of a positive self-image. Because of this attitude, we tend to compare ourselves to others and rationalize our faults in order to create a good mental image of ourselves. We try to achieve this good mental image of ourselves not only by comparison, but also through our tendencies to accept responsibility for desired outcomes while finding external causes for undesired outcomes, (1). While not all implicit associations involve each of the attitudes, the association does form in part because of our natural implicit attitudes. Since negative implicit associations are formed with the help of the four strong implicit attitudes as well as misunderstanding of the stimuli it makes sense why such a strong trend of implicit and unconscious racism exists. 3

4 CHANGING IMPLICIT ASSOCIATIONS As we ve seen, explicit associations depend on recent experiences and change as our schemas change. At the other extreme though, it s safe to say that our implicit associations are fairly constant. Stereotypes and associations are considered very stable and not easily altered, but depending on the context and information given, an explicit association can influence the implicit association. However, are we able to change them like we can change our explicit associations? The answer to that question is both yes and no. No matter how hard we tried, we would not be able to change our implicit associations at the snap of our fingers like we can with our explicit; but over time, and with sufficient motivation to do so, we are actually able to influence our implicit associations. Long Term Process A good way to control negative implicit association is through a process of recognition, exposure, and active suppression. First, we have to determine the things that aggravate our subtly implicit associations into action. Although the original memory traces may be weak, by recognizing and pinpointing the individual events that trigger the associations, we can figure out the thought patterns that give rise to the negative actions and learn how to moderate them. This step is especially important because implicit cognitive effects have been found either to be weakened or reversed for subjects who could recall the stimuli that ordinarily produce those effects, (1). For this reason, we must try to recall our first encounters with the stimuli so that we can better understand and more effectively change our negative implicit associations. Just as the results of the IAT could only be found in an indirect manner, implicit associations themselves are most prevalent when they are unnoticed and spontaneous. For this reason, when we start to consciously consider our associations, we can better control their unintended outward expressions. In Greenwald and Banaji s paper, Our attitudes predict our actions if, as we act, we are conscious of our attitudes, (1). By knowing our attitudes, both implicit and explicit, we can control our own actions and influence how our associations affect us by the way we behave. We can purposely avoid actions that would reinforce the negative association and try to create a better understanding of the stimuli that destroys our misconception. Also in Greenwald and Banaji s paper, It appears that increased perceptual fluency of a repeatedly presented stimulus is misattributed to liking, yielding a positive evaluation of the stimulus, (1) Based on this, we can take steps to provide ourselves with healthy exposure in order to create a more positive conception of the stimuli. Exposure to stimuli will help us to make those conscious explicit actions more natural and implicit. By gradually allowing ourselves to experience the stimuli with greater frequency, we will begin to form a positive association with it. This new association will change the way we allow our explicit actions to display a negative implicit association. Although this is definitely a long term process that requires deep thought it is effective. After initial recognition of the associative stimuli, a plan of action can be made to consciously recognize the association in everyday interactions. Furthermore, by making intentional exposure or learning more about the stimuli, a new and positive association can be made by actively changing the explicit attitude and indirectly changing the implicit as well. Short Term Process 4

5 In the cases of particularly motivated subjects, he or she may control the application of stereotypes by suppressing them, compensating for their influence, or concentrating on individuating information, (6) but he or she is still unable to restrain implicit associations from acting altogether. To affect negative implicit associations on a short term timeline, People may be able to achieve the same goal through the activation and strengthening of Counter-Stereotype (CS) associations. (6) Counter stereotypes exist. Therefore we can try to reverse a negative implicit association, such as a stereotype, by considering that the opposite of the association were true. In order for our brain to accept counter stereotypes, we need to seriously consider them for ourselves. We can effectively do this by using mental imagery. Mental imagery is the conscious and intentional act of creating a mental representation of a person, object, or event by seeing it with the mind s eye, (6) or in other words, by thinking about a specific theoretical situation. By using this, the effects of implicit association on factors such as stereotyping can be easily controlled. Not only does mental imagery make it easier to access the brain and change implicit associations, but it is also carries the weight of a real experience; therefore having a bigger effect on learning, decision making, and behavior of the subject. In order to test this method, several experiments involving the IAT were performed on different groups of college students. In one of the experiments, subjects were given an initial IAT (relating the words strong, weak, woman, and man) then told to perform mental imagery. Half of the subjects were told to imagine a neutral tropical vacation while the other half imagined their idea of a strong woman. There was no effect on the results of the portion of the IAT that affirmed the stereotype by either half, but on the IAT portion that was stereotype-inconsistent, the group who did CS imaging performed much faster and the implicit association that women are weak decreased by half. Likewise, when a different group was told to imagine a woman consistent with the type of weak that the IAT was testing, they had a much greater register of the implicit stereotype than the neutral group. These experiments proved that mental imagery is a viable strategy to use with this type of association conditioning because not only is it easy for the subject to do, but it actually produces real results. Although a CS mental imagery only changes implicit stereotypes for a short time, if used frequently, the CS will become more naturally believed and effortlessly explicit. Therefore, it is better to simply encourage people to think of the diversity of a group and the people in the group who disconfirm a stereotype as a way to affect the implicit association. Overall, the main thing we can learn from both long term and short term strategies of changing implicit associations, is that not only can implicit stereotypes influence explicit judgments and behavior, but explicit thoughts and strategies may also influence implicit stereotypes, (6). CONCLUSION Although we ve seen that negative implicit associations can be changed, it is always harder to change an implicit association than an explicit association. This is mainly because of the many factors that affect the formation of these implicit associations like implicit attitudes and stimuli misconceptions. Even though the two strategies discussed are good techniques for overriding negative associations, they require a very motivated subject to undergo these processes. However, a lot of times, there would be a lack of motivation and a lack of interest in changing an implicit association, especially if it doesn t correspond with the explicit association which subjects may believe is their true 5

6 6 opinion. Therefore, although challenging, the best way to eliminate negative associations is to avoid them completely by forming positive and right-minded associations from the beginning. (1) Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, Self-Esteem, and Stereotypes Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji Psychological Review Vol. 102, No. 1 (1995) pp Published by: American Psychological Association. Inc. Article Stable URL: This article was one of the most important and valid articles of them all. The two authors are the ones who actually developed the IAT and the concept of the implicit association. Therefore, their research is far more detailed, but also more explanative of the actual concept than any of the other sources I used. The authors tested subjects using the IAT to determine that implicit and explicit associations are entirely different. Also, it presents in-depth descriptions of many different implicit association biases that help the reader understand why implicit associations are so complicated and intertwined with our everyday cognitive processes. (2) The Bias Finders Bruce Bower Science News Vol. 169, No. 16 (Apr. 22, 2006), pp Published by: Society for Science & the Public Article Stable URL: This article discusses both the first IAT tests and also the trend that although self-reported opinions may change according to the information a person receives, the implicit attitude stays the same. In this science news report, the main idea is that first conceptions are extremely difficult to erase so it is better if those same first impressions are right-minded and accurate. Since this article is from the magazine Science News as well as from Jstor, it is a fairly reliable source. I like this site because unlike some of the other scientific articles, they use language that is easy enough for people not-so-familiar with psychology to understand. Most scientists would definitely agree with all the information given and the author uses the results of actual IAT tests to illustrate his points so this source would be simply evaluated as valid. (3) Does Unconscious Racism Exist? Lincoln Quillian Social Psychology Quarterly Vol. 71, No. 1 (Mar., 2008), pp Published by: American Sociological Association Article Stable URL: This article is a little different than the rest. Although it was published in a Psychology journal, it seems a little less technical. The author uses the phrases unconscious racism and implicit prejudice interchangeably, but also brings up the fact that not only are blacks subject to these, but also other minority groups like Latinos. This article is especially good because it is fairly new. This article was made in 2006 so it is still valid and I think that the information presented about minorities is extremely valid even today because the social condition of implicit prejudice has not changed enough to invalidate this work. Also, the author is a reliable source because she does a lot of study with psychology and is a Professor of Sociology and fellow of institute of policy research at Northwestern University. (4) Implicit Attitude Measures: Consistency, Stability, and Convergent Validity William A. Cunningham, Kristopher J. Preacher and Mahzarin R. Banaji

7 Psychological Science Vol. 12, No. 2 (Mar., 2001), pp Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the Association for Psychological Science Article Stable URL: This is an actual research article written by the three scientists who performed the experiment. In the experiment, they test three different tests that all address the same issue: to examine the unconscious attitudes of the subjects vs. the subjects own self-reported attitudes. By performing an IAT, Response-Window Priming, and a Response-Window IAT, they investigate both the relationship between self-reported non-prejudice and the consistent test scores among the different tests. This article is definitely valid because its findings agree with previous research results so most scientists would agree with their findings. Also, this is also extremely informed because two of the three authors are Professors at Yale and the other is a Professor at Ohio State University. I would definitely use this article in my paper because not only do they talk about the different kinds of test, but they evaluate the consistency between the results of each as well as the relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes in regards to both race and prejudice. (5) Implicit and Explicit Prejudice and Interracial Interaction John F. Dovidio, Kerry Kawakami and Samuel L. Gaertner Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Vol. 82, No.1 (2002), pp Published by: American Psychological Association. Inc. Article Stable URL: This article talked a lot about the way that implicit associations actually affect our interactions. In particular, the authors experimented to see whether a white person s belief of their implicit association affected how they interacted when a black participant talked with them. First, the white participants were asked to self-report, they then had a conversation with a black participant and then had to evaluate how friendly they think they behaved. The results showed that the self-reported associate did accurately predict how the subject interacted with their black partner. Also, surprisingly, the reported association could be used to predict how much friendlier the whites considered their interactions to be. I found this article on Google Scholar, but the stable URL required a payment of $15 so I was unsure about the validity of this article, however, on the actual Google Scholar results page, Google had provided a free PDF. I think that this is a really important and useful source as well as informed and reliable. However, I think it could be considered a little controversial since the whites might not agree with the conclusion that their sense of their own friendliness could be predicted solely by their reported association. (6) Imagining Stereotypes Away: The Moderation of Implicit Stereotypes through Mental Imagery Irene V. Blair, Jennifer E. Ma and Alison P. Lenton Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Vol. 81, No.5 (2001) pp Published by: American Psychological Association. Inc. Article Stable URL: This article was extremely informational. I have no doubt that this is an informed article because the authors had performed such extensive testing to determine whether their hypothesis had been correct or incorrect. In this article, they talked a lot about whether implicit associations, especially in the form or stereotypes, can be changed. They did five experiments using the concept of counter-stereotype mental imagery to create a new implicit association. Immediately after mental imagery that was relevant to the topic being tested, participants were asked to complete an IAT. Compared to the results of an earlier IAT, the subjects who had considered the counter-stereotype had an improved reaction to the counter-stereotype enforcing version of the test. 7

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