Case Study: the Implicit Association Test

CASE STUDY: The Implicit Association Test

The Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998 [DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464]) has become a very popular method to use for measuring the strengths of associations between concepts, in an indirect way. Normally the IAT is used to measure the strength of associations between an attitude object and its valence. In this case study we explain the procedure involved in the IAT.

As mentioned, the IAT can be used to measure attitudes. For example, say a researcher is interested in the attitude toward blood donating. There are always two categories used in an IAT: one is the target category (blood donating), which is the category in which the researcher is interested; the other is a control category, which is not related to the target category (e.g., flowers). Beside these two categories, the researcher needs positive valenced words (e.g., friends) and negative valenced words (e.g., cancer). These words have to be comparable in valence strength. The idea behind the IAT is that you can measure how strongly people associate the target category with positive and negative valenced words (relative to the control category).

The IAT procedure consists of five blocks. In these blocks, participants have to react as quickly as possible to words that appear on a computer screen by pushing two buttons that refer to a certain category. The words to be categorized are the target words, the control words, and the positive or negative words. Participants have to indicate whether a word is a target word or a control word, and is positive or negative. The more easily they associate a target word with a positive word, the more positive the association.

The blocks look like this (of course in good research these blocks are counterbalanced):

Left button Right button 1 Target words Control words 2 Positive words Negative words 3 Target OR positive words Control OR negative words 4 Negative words Positive words 5 Target OR negative words Control OR positive words

Now the IAT effect (positivity of an attitude) is the difference between the reaction times in blocks 5 and 3. The more positive the attitude toward blood donating, the more easy and faster the reaction times will be in block 3, and the more difficult and slower the reaction times will be in block 5.

Although the IAT is a very popular tool for measuring attitudes in an indirect way, there are some limitations to it. The “control” words seem to have an impact on the relative evaluation of the target words. Consequently, IAT effects have to be studied very critically.

Reference Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998) [DOI:10.1037/0022- 3514.74.6.1464]. Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464–1480.