Reducing the Expression of Implicit Stereotypes: Reflexive Control Through Implementation Intentions

Abstract

The authors tested the effectiveness of implementation intentions as a strategy for limiting the behavioral expression of implicit stereotypes. Implementation intentions are if-then plans that link an intended response to an anticipated situational cue, thereby enabling a reflexive form of control. The authors examined whether two different types of implementation intentions could improve response accuracy on the Shooter Task, a reaction time measure of implicit stereotyping. In Study 1, participants used a distraction-inhibiting implementation intention designed to engage control over the perception of goal-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., race). In Study 2, participants used a response-facilitating implementation intention designed to promote goal-directed action. Across studies, implementation intentions improved accuracy, thereby limiting the behavioral expression of implicit stereotypes. Furthermore, process dissociation analyses indicated that the distraction-inhibiting implementation intention increased controlled processing while reducing automatic stereotype activation, whereas the response-facilitating implementation intention increased only controlled processing. Implications for goal strategy approaches to reducing prejudice are discussed.

Reducing implicit racial preferences: II. Intervention effectiveness across time.

“…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.…”

Implementation Intentions

“…Recent research has convincingly shown that implementation intentions can be effective in overruling habitual behaviors when specifying that the habitual response shall be replaced with an alternative new response once the critical situation is encountered Cohen et al, 2008;Holland et al, 2006;Mendoza et al, 2010;Schweiger Gallo et al, 2009;Schweiger Gallo & Gollwitzer, 2007;Stewart & Payne, 2008). In the present research, we investigated the cognitive effects of forming counterhabitual implementation intentions to increase the understanding of what makes counterhabitual implementation intentions such effective tools to overrule habits.…”

“…Counterhabitual implementation intentions have been found effective in changing several types of habits, such as recycling habits (Holland et al, 2006), reducing switch costs in a task-switching paradigm and overcoming the automatic effects of spatial location in a Simon task (Cohen et al, 2008), reducing automatic stereotypical thoughts (Stewart & Payne, 2008) or limiting the behavioral expression of implicit stereotypes (Mendoza, Gollwitzer, & Amodio, 2010), reducing spider fear in spider phobics (Schweiger Gallo & Gollwitzer, 2007;Schweiger Gallo, Keil, McCulloch, Rockstroh, & Gollwitzer, 2009), reducing prompted disgust reactions (Schweiger Gallo et al, 2009), decreasing unhealthy snack consumption , and reducing smoking behavior (but only for people with weak or moderately strong smoking habits; Webb, Sheeran, & Luszczynska, 2009). …”

“…In contrast, implementation intentions that specify an ignore response have been found to be effective in overcoming habits (Achtziger, Gollwitzer, & Sheeran, 2008;Mendoza et al, 2010;Schweiger Gallo et al, 2009;Sheeran, Aubrey, & Kellett, 2007), but, similar to replacement implementation intentions, little is known about the underlying processes that make this type of plan effective in overruling habitual responses. A further investigation of underlying processes is thus also warranted for implementation intentions that specify ignoring a critical stimulus.…”

The Impact of Awareness on Reducing Social Bias in Behavior

“…increasing controlled processing and reducing the impact of automatic stereotypic associations (Mendoza, Gollwitzer, & Amodio, 2010).…”