Specificity and incremental predictive validity of implicit attitudes: studies of a race-based phenotype

Abstract

Four studies involving 2552 White American participants were conducted to investigate bias based on the race-based phenotype of hair texture. Specifically, we probed the existence and magnitude of bias in favor of Eurocentric (straight) over Afrocentric (curly) hair and its specificity in predicting responses to a legal decision involving the phenotype. Study 1 revealed an implicit preference, measured by an Implicit Association Test (IAT), favoring Eurocentric over Afrocentric hair texture among White Americans. This effect was not reducible to a Black/White implicit race attitude nor to mere perceptual preference favoring straight over curly hair. In Study 2, the phenotype (hair) IAT significantly and uniquely predicted expressions of support in response to an actual legal case that involved discrimination on the basis of Afrocentric hair texture. Beyond replicating this result, Studies 3 and 4 (the latter preregistered) provided further, and even more stringent, evidence for incremental predictive validity: in both studies, the phenotype IAT was associated with support for a Black plaintiff above and beyond the effects of two parallel explicit scales and, additionally, a race attitude IAT. Overall, these studies support the idea that race bias may be uniquely detected by examining implicit attitudes elicited by group-based phenotypicality, such as hair texture. Moreover, the present results inform theoretical investigations of the correspondence principle in the context of implicit social cognition: they suggest that tailoring IATs to index specific aspects of an attitude object (e.g., by decomposition of phenotypes) can improve prediction of intergroup behavior.

Systemic racism: individuals and interactions, institutions and society

“…More recently, Kurdi et al, ( 2021 ) measured attitudes toward a phenotypic feature that happens to be a dominant perceptual marker of race, Afrocentric and Eurocentric types of hair. First participants took an IAT measuring their implicit attitude toward Black women with natural or straightened hair.…”

A Comparative Investigation of the Predictive Validity of Four Indirect Measures of Bias and Prejudice

“…The best method for addressing this issue is through latent variable approaches like SEM, which account for measurement error, and simulation studies have shown strong divergences in conclusions about incremental predictive validity when comparing SEM versus multiple linear regression ( Westfall & Yarkoni, 2016 ), with only SEM being able to properly maintain Type I error rates as sample sizes increase. To date, few studies have used SEM in tests of incremental predictive validity for indirect measures (cf., Axt et al, 2020 ; Kurdi et al, 2021 ). The most in-depth examination comes from Buttrick et al (2020) where an analysis of more than 15,000 participants compared conclusions about incremental predictive validity for SEM versus multiple linear regression across 10 IATs and 250 outcome variables.…”

Changes of Implicit and Explicit Asian Attitudes from 2018 to 2021

“…To measure implicit racial attitudes, an implicit association test has been developed, to measure the difference between associations with two target concepts and attributes. Implicit and explicit bias could predict participants' relevant social behavior, and implicit racial attitude could predict the measure of intergroup behavior [10].…”