Are “implicit” attitudes unconscious?

Gawronski, Bertram; Hofmann, Wilhelm; Wilbur, Christopher J.

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2005.11.007

Cited by 324 publications

(216 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…First, an individual may not be aware of the source of the attitude (i.e., the experiences that gave rise to the attitude), they may not be aware of the content (i.e., whether it is positive or negative), or they may not be aware of the impact of the attitude on behavior. Importantly, there is no evidence that implicit measures capture unconscious or preconscious processes (Gawronski, Hofmann, & Wilbur, 2006;Hahn & Gawronski, 2014).…”

Section: Are There a Priori Theoretical Reasons To Assume That Implicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implicit measures of “wanting” and “liking” in humans

Tibboel

Houwer

Bockstaele

2015

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

109

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Incentive Sensitization Theory (IST; e.g., Robinson & Berridge, 1993; suggests that a common dopamine system that deals with incentive salience attribution is affected by different types of drugs. Repeated drug use will sensitize this neural system, which means that drugs increasingly trigger the experience of incentive salience or "wanting". Importantly, Robinson and Berridge stress that there is a dissociation between drug "wanting" (the unconscious attribution of incentive salience) and drug "liking" (the unconscious hedonic experience when one consumes drugs). Whereas the former plays an essential role in the development and maintenance of drug addiction, the latter does not. Although this model was based mainly on research with non-human animals, more recently the dissociation between "wanting" and "liking" has been examined in humans as well. A widely used and promising means of studying these processes are behavioral implicit measures such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT), different types of StimulusResponse Compatibility (SRC) tasks, and Affective Simon Tasks (AST).IST makes the clear prediction that (1) there should be a positive correlation between indices of "wanting" (e.g., drug consumption) and implicit "wanting" scores. Similarly, there should be a positive correlation between indices of "liking" (e.g., various expressions of subjective pleasure) and implicit "liking" scores; (2) there should be higher "wanting" scores in substance abusers or frequent substance users compared to non-users or infrequent users, and there should be no differences in "liking" between these groups (or even less "liking" in frequent substance users); (3) manipulations of "wanting" should affect implicit "wanting" scores whereas manipulations of "liking" should affect implicit "liking" scores. However, studies that tested these hypotheses did not produce equivocal results. To shed light on these discrepancies, we first discuss the different definitions of "wanting" and "liking" and the different tests that have been used to assess these processes. Then, we discuss whether it is 3 reasonable to assume that these tests are valid measures of "wanting" and "liking" and we review correlational, quasi-experimental, and experimental studies that inform us about this issue. Finally, we discuss the future potential of implicit measures in research on IST and make several recommendations to improve both theory and methodology. 4

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Section: Are There a Priori Theoretical Reasons To Assume That Implicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implicit measures of “wanting” and “liking” in humans

Tibboel

Houwer

Bockstaele

2015

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

109

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“…Thus, an alternative way of assessing these constructs that circumvent issues associated with explicit measures would be to use implicit measures of cognitive outcomes (Fazio & Olson, 2003). It has been found that implicit measures are less likely to cause report biases as the participant's response is not limited to introspection, but relies on automatic responses made outside of conscious awareness (Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998, but see also Gawronski, Hofmann & Wilbur, 2006).…”

Section: Reliance On Self-report Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

The moderating impact of self‐esteem on self‐affirmation effects

Düring

Jessop

2014

British J Health Psychol

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Objectives This study explored whether self‐esteem would moderate the effectiveness of a self‐affirmation manipulation at increasing openness to personally relevant health‐risk information. Design The study employed a prospective experimental design. Method Participants (N = 328) completed either a self‐affirmation manipulation or a control task, prior to reading information detailing the health‐related consequences of taking insufficient exercise. They then completed a series of measures assessing their cognitions towards exercise and their derogation of the information. Exercise behaviour was assessed at 1‐week follow‐up. Results Self‐esteem moderated the impact of self‐affirmation on the majority of outcomes. For participants with low self‐esteem, the self‐affirmation manipulation resulted in more positive attitudes and intentions towards exercise, together with lower levels of derogation of the health‐risk information. By contrast, there was no effect of the self‐affirmation manipulation on outcomes for participants with high self‐esteem. Conclusion Findings suggest that self‐affirmation manipulations might be of particular benefit for those with low self‐esteem in terms of promoting openness towards health‐risk information. This is promising from a health promotion perspective, as individuals with low self‐esteem often represent those most in need of intervention. What is already known on this subject? Self‐affirmation has been shown to result in more open processing of personally relevant health‐risk information. Individuals low in self‐esteem tend to process such information more defensively than those high in self‐esteem. What does this study add? It explores whether self‐esteem moderates the impact of self‐affirmation on responses to health‐risk information. Findings suggest that individuals with low self‐esteem benefit most from the self‐affirmation manipulation. This has important applied implications, as individuals with low self‐esteem may be most in need of intervention.

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“…Of course, the research also raises some very general issues about whether or not consumers are dissociated in a number of respects, and whether two separate (but potentially interacting) systems of unconscious/implicit and conscious/explicit attitudes really do exist (see Gawronski, Hofmann and Wilbur, 2006;Rydell et al, 2006)). This is by no means universally accepted in the psychological literature; indeed it is currently the subject of much quite heated debate (see Blanton et al, 2006Blanton et al, , 2007Blanton et al, , 2009 for a critique of this position and Greenwald, Nosek and Sriram, 2006, McConnell and Leibold, 2009, and Ziegert and Hanges, 2009 for some rebuttals).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumption and climate change: Why we say one thing but do another in the face of our greatest threat

Beattie

McGuire

2016

Semiotica

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There is clear evidence that human beings have contributed to climate change through their patterns of consumption, and since we are part of the problem then we must be part of the solution. People say that they are prepared to adapt their behaviour to ameliorate the effects of climate change, but numerous studies have found that little behaviour change actually occurs. This experimental study investigates this issue, by focussing on explicit (self report) attitudes, and implicit (automatic) attitudes to various consumer brands with differing environmental consequences in a behavioural choice task. We found firstly, in line with previous research, that human beings have reflective attitudes and more unconscious and automatic attitudes that are 'dissociated'.In terms of consumer choice of brands, we found that consumers were particularly sensitive to both big brand information and value in their selection of products, particularly under time pressure. Organic/eco brands were,

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Are “implicit” attitudes unconscious?

Cited by 324 publications

References 84 publications

Implicit measures of “wanting” and “liking” in humans

Implicit measures of “wanting” and “liking” in humans

The moderating impact of self‐esteem on self‐affirmation effects

Consumption and climate change: Why we say one thing but do another in the face of our greatest threat

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