The Relationship Between Implicit Attitudes and Displayed Behaviors

Abstract As society has progressed, there has been increased discussion surrounding prejudice, discrimination, and bias, and, therefore, also further recognition of the universality of internalized bias (Mitchell, 2013). The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a test that was developed to measure then strength of the unconscious relationship individuals hold between various groups of people and the stereotypes associated with said group (About the IAT, n.d.). In a demonstration of the IAT by the creators, Anthony Greenwald and Mahzarin Banaji, it was found that within the group of participants that were administered the test, 90 to 95 percent of the individuals displayed a significant level of implicit bias based upon their results (Schwartz, 1998). As these finding suggest that a majority of people internalize bias to some degree, our study aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship between the level of internalized biases that people display within the IAT and a display of biased or prejudiced behavior that is consistent with their results. To determine whether attitudes would be predictive of behaviors, we sampled a group of college students and administered two versions of the IAT (Gender-Career and Gender- Science). Following competition of these tests, participants were asked if they would like to sign up for a Women in S.T.E.M. club newsletter, which served as a means of observable measure of prejudiced behavior. Data is currently being collected and results will be presented at SURS. It was found that, -------. These findings suggest that ----