- don’t know if its measuring implicit bias due to extraneous variables- disabilities e.g., dyslexia, mood

- order effects

- only measures implicit bias to a certain extent would need other tests carried out to get a full understating of the topic

-tests may pick up cultural knowledge rather than a self-association with the implicit behaviours

-demand characteristics

Strengths

-generalisable

-meta-analysis

-can be done over different age groups, ethnic groups etc

-become aware of the implicit bias and reflect on how they think and act

(self-awareness) https://www.vectorsolutions.com/resources/blogs/importance-bias-testing/

Ø  The results of test results in laws that can protect people – discriminatory act.

+      Practical applications: used in marketing and interviews. If implicit attitudes are identified, can avoid choosing for example men in an interview over women (legislation/laws/policies). Can look at people’s implicit attitudes towards an object or product and implement this into the manufacturing to create a product that will be well received.

+      Better than self-report

+      Lots of studies – across ages, genders and cultures – generalisable

+      In a lab – on computer – controlled study

+      Easy, cheap to collect large amounts of data

+      Research biases are eliminated

Low social desirability bias – less susceptible to faking answers – can’t conform to something you are unaware of. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19312458.2011.596992

Ingroup out group affect

nurture (such as what they’ve grown up with and what they’re surrounded by)

previous stereotypes

It provides awareness which encourages further research for educational purposes

Negatives

Possibility of measurement stood

Individual differences may influence the results

There is the possibility that it will still reflect societal attitudes rather than personal attitudes

• Data is correlational so does not allow for conclusions to be drawn about causation.

• Limited number of attribute words; therefore other aspects of implicit stigma (e.g., “loss of face,” “shame,” and “destructive”) warrant inclusion in future studies.

• Studied attitudes toward mental illness among undergraduate students, a group that is not representative of the general public in China

• Assessed attitudes towards mental illness in general, did not differentiate between different disorders. e. schizophrenia, depression.

Pro - Cost effective and time efficient

Con - Ideologically bias - psychologists subconscious biases are influencing the aims of their study

Con -Individual differences such as age and IQ can influence the speed of response

• Provides us with a method of indirectly measuring an individual’s unconscious, implicit attitudes without relying on self-reports that may be affected by the need to seem socially acceptable

• Short test - can be easily replicated with large samples

• Real life application to marketing - can measure people’s attitudes towards products which in turn can be used to make products more appealing

Cons:

• Delay in time taken to complete the second part of the IAT may not necessarily be due to implicit attitudes but instead because the Ps have already learnt the first condition and become familiar with it. This means that when it comes to the second condition with different tasks, the increased time taken to complete the task may be due to the P having to relearn the task, therefore the IAT may have low reliability

• The test is a product of the culture in which it was created and may not be applicable to other cultures , therefore cannot generalise to wider (non-Western) populations

• Results show the implicit views of the society that an individual was raised in, rather than the implicit views of the individual themselves (Jan De Houwer, 2002)

• It tests for subconscious bias without the participants knowing

• It is relativelye quick to set up and carry out

Cons:

• Ideologically bias, subconsciously ias by the psychologist are influencing the key aims of their study

• Individual differecnes like age and IQ can have an impact on the speed of which we complete the IAT

(Jan De Houwer, IAT as a tool for studying dysfunctional associations in psychopathology)

+ allowed for development in psychopathology

- measures the strength of an association rather than the nature of it

-many beliefs are more complex than associations which IAT doesn't account for

Jan de Houwer, 2002

-self report method, which is open to bias and false results

-IATs are restricted to the assessment of relative association

o   Immune to manipulation, unlike the survey questions where the appearance of the enumerator has a strong effect on participant responses. This is thought to be due to the unobservability of sorting latencies.

o   A decrease in demand characteristics as participants cannot fake their results.

o   A meta-analysis on the IAT has shown that the test provides modest predictions of behaviour, which are better than self-reports.

Cons

o   There is no explanation for peoples answers of the IAT (their possible experiences, where they got their prejudices from, etc).

o   The study is not replicable, as you can repeat it and each time will get you contradictory evidence.

-test is simple to do

-cost effective

-doesn't distinguish between culture and stereotypes

-results don't consider peoples experiences

(1) the participants used in the study were ethnically diverse as it ensures that the study is representative of the real world

(2) The Disability Valence IAT was used which uncovers hidden biases that people may have regarding Clinical diagonoses this makes the paper reliable.

Limitations

(1) A wider age group should have been used as attitudes and biases can vary across different ages.

(2) the participants were only shown children who were African American or White which disregards the wider population

Dickter, C. L., Burk, J. A., Zeman, J. L., & Taylor, S. C. (2020). Implicit and Explicit Attitudes toward Autistic Adults. Autism in Adulthood, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2019.0023