The fragility of implicit evaluation updating: The role of cognitive and ecological constraints

Abstract

Although implicit (automatic) evaluations can exhibit momentary malleability, demonstrations of long-term change are rare, especially in the negative-to-positive direction. In this project (total N = 2,150), we rely on ideas from fear leaning to ask why even interventions that produce short-term malleability immediately tend to be ineffective in creating durable change in implicit attitudes. In Experiment 1, we identified two interventions that were particularly effective in overturning negative implicit evaluations formed about a novel social target in the short term: reinterpretation and negation + replacement. In Experiments 2A and 2B, we confirmed the effectiveness of these two interventions in bringing about immediate reversals of experimentally induced negative implicit evaluations. In Experiment 3, the shifts in implicit evaluation achieved via reinterpretation and negation + replacement did not show any decrement over 2 days. However, when the target was repeatedly paired with mildly unpleasant images 2 days after reinterpretation or negation + replacement (reinstatement), implicit evaluations became markedly negative (Experiment 4) and considerably more negative than implicit evaluations of a control target that had never been subject to implicit negativity (Experiment 5). Taken together, these data suggest that negative-to-positive changes in implicit evaluation may not be vulnerable to the mere passage of time (spontaneous recovery). However, even interventions that seem to fully and durably overturn implicit negativity immediately can leave initially encoded negative information intact and allow for such information to be expressed later. We discuss implications for theories of implicit social cognition and the prospect of durable implicit attitude change.

Implicit bias against non-Americans in the United States: Cognitive underpinnings and ecological correlates

“…As such, despite the good intentions of removing the term "alien" from the vocabulary of federal agencies, minimal steps of this kind are unlikely to yield meaningful reductions in anti-foreigner attitudes. Rather, the prospect of positive change is likely predicated on a joint consideration of the dynamic interplay between the cognitive constraints characterizing human minds 54 and the myriad forms of structural disadvantage and exclusion characterizing non-Americans' everyday social environments in the United States [6][7][8] .…”

The case against implicit bias fatalism

“…Specifically, following quick experimental studies or even rare instances of well-designed implicit bias education, people return to their usual social environments, which are replete with reminders of old biases and have little to offer to facilitate the consolidation of counter-attitudinal updating. Implicit biases therefore often bounce back to their baselines not because implicit attitude change is cognitively impossible but rather, in large part, because ecologies are biased 9 .…”

“…that someone is a child molester can immediately undo the effects of learning that the same person has performed 100 mildly positive behaviours, such as volunteering to tutor disadvantaged students or paying for their parents' anniversary trip 8 . Such updating can endure beyond a single experimental session 9 .…”

International stability and change in explicit and implicit attitudes: An investigation spanning 33 countries, five social groups, and 11 years (2009–2019)

“…Specifically, given that the vast majority of these studies rely on novel targets (such as fictitious brands, geometric shapes, or unknown individuals), it is questionable whether their results would generalize to consequential social targets, including real-world social groups. After all, social groups are subject to a lifelong history of evaluative learning (Kurdi, Mann, et al, 2023), which may make such attitudes particularly difficult to shift in durable ways.…”