Implicit Stereotypes About Race

As psychologists, how can we measure stereotypes? In this day and age, it can be difficult to do so by simply asking people explicitly. Most people downplay their biases because they realize those biases aren’t socially acceptable; we call this tendency “social desirability.” In this video, then, we’ll explore several examples of how psychological scientists have circumvented this problem by using implicit measures of bias. We’ll specifically discuss implicit stereotypes about race, but keep these methods in mind because we’ll use them again as we learn about other dimensions of diversity in future videos.
Social Desirability: The tendency for people to conceal negative aspects of their beliefs or personality when asked, in part to preserve a positive self-image.
Cultural Stereotype: The set of traits and characteristics that people associate with a particular social group.
Personal Social Beliefs: Aspects of a cultural stereotype that people themselves believe.
Implicit Association Test (or IAT): A computer-based task designed to test participants’ stereotypes and/or associations between categories (e.g., social groups).