Implicit preferences are malleable, but does that change last? We tested nine interventions (eight real and one sham) to reduce implicit racial preferences over time. In two studies with a total of 6,321 participants, all nine interventions immediately reduced implicit preferences. However, none were effective after a delay of several hours to several days. We also found that these interventions did not change explicit racial preferences and were not reliably moderated by motivations to respond without prejudice. Short-term malleability in implicit preferences does not necessarily lead to long-term change, raising new questions about the flexibility and stability of implicit preferences.Word Count: 100 Keywords: attitudes, racial prejudice, implicit social cognition, malleability, Implicit Association Test Full CitationLai, C. K., Skinner, A. L., Cooley, E., Murrar, S., Brauer, M., Devos, T., Calanchini, J., Xiao, Y. J., Pedram, C., Marshburn, C. K., Simon, S., Blanchar, J. C., Joy-Gaba, J. A., Conway, J., Redford, L., Klein, R. A., Roussos, G., Schellhaas, F. M. H., Burns, M., Hu, X., McLean, M. C., Axt, J. R., Asgari, S., Schmidt, K., Rubinstein., R, Marini, M., Rubichi, S., Shin,. J. L., & Nosek, B. A. (2016). Reducing implicit racial preferences: II. Intervention effectiveness across time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 1001-1016. REDUCING IMPLICIT RACIAL PREFERENCES 3 Reducing Implicit Racial Preferences: II. Intervention Effectiveness Across TimeEarly theories of implicit social cognition suggested that implicit associations were largely stable. These claims were supported by evidence that changes in conscious belief did not lead to corresponding changes in implicit associations (e.g., Devine, 1989;Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000). The psychologist John Bargh referred to the stability of implicit cognitions as the "cognitive monster": "Once a stereotype is so entrenched that it becomes activated automatically, there is really little that can be done to control its influence" (p. 378, Bargh, 1999). This dominant view has changed over the past fifteen years to one of implicit malleability, with many studies finding that implicit associations are sensitive to lab-based interventions (for reviews, see Blair, 2002;Gawronski & Bodenhausen 2006;Lai, Hoffman, & Nosek, 2013). These interventions vary greatly in approach. In one, for example, participants are exposed to images of people who defy stereotypes (e.g., admired Black people / hated White people; Joy-Gaba & Nosek, 2010). In another, participants are given goals to override implicit biases (e.g., Mendoza, Gollwitzer, & Amodio, 2010;Stewart & Payne, 2008).In most of the research on implicit association change, the short-term malleability of associations is tested by administering an implicit measure immediately after the intervention. Studies examining long-term change in implicit associations are rare. In a meta-analysis on experiments to change implicit associations (Forscher, Lai, et al., 2016), only 22 (3.7%) of 585 studies ...

Due to a lack of data, the demographic and psychological factors associated with lethal force by police officers have remained insufficiently explored. We develop the first predictive models of lethal force by integrating crowd-sourced and fact-checked lethal force databases with regional demographics and measures of geolocated implicit and explicit racial biases collected from 2,156,053 residents across the United States. Results indicate that only the implicit racial prejudices and stereotypes of White residents, beyond major demographic covariates, are associated with disproportionally more use of lethal force with Blacks relative to regional base rates of Blacks in the population. Thus, the current work provides the first macropsychological statistical models of lethal force, indicating that the context in which police officers work is significantly associated with disproportionate use of lethal force.

Large-scale data collection has enabled social scientists to examine psychological constructs at broad, regional levels. However, because constructs and their measures initially operationalized at the individual level may have qualitatively and quantitatively different properties at other levels of analysis, the validity of constructs must be established when they are operationalized at new levels. To this end, the current research presents evidence of construct validity for explicit and implicit racial bias at region levels. Following classic measurement theory, we examine the substantive, structural, and external evidence of construct validity for regional biases. We do so with responses from ϳ2 million Black and White North Americans collected over 13 years. Though implicit measures typically demonstrate low retest reliability at the individual level, our analyses reveal conventionally acceptable levels of retest reliability at the highest levels of regional aggregation. Additionally, whereas previous meta-analyses find relatively low explicit-implicit correlations at the individual level, the present research uncovered strong explicitimplicit correlations at regional levels. The findings have implications for how we interpret measures of racial bias at regional levels.

Implicit preferences are malleable, but does that change last? We tested nine interventions (eight real and one sham) to reduce implicit racial preferences over time. In two studies with a total of 6,321 participants, all nine interventions immediately reduced implicit preferences. However, none were effective after a delay of several hours to several days. We also found that these interventions did not change explicit racial preferences and were not reliably moderated by motivations to respond without prejudice. Short-term malleability in implicit preferences does not necessarily lead to long-term change, raising new questions about the flexibility and stability of implicit preferences.Word Count: 100