The Rational Dynamics of Implicit Thought

Abstract

Implicit a itudes are mental states posited by psychologists to explain behaviors including implicit racial and gender bias. In this paper I investigate the belief view of the implicit a itudes, on which implicit a itudes are a kind of implicit belief. In particular, I focus on why implicit a itudes, if they are beliefs, are often resistant to updating in light of new evidence. I argue that extant versions of the belief view do not give a satisfactory account of this phenomenon. This is because proponents of the belief view have focused on overly narrow explanations of recalcitrance in terms of belief storage. Expanding the focus of the belief view to the kinds of irrational and arational transitions between beliefs and other mental states provides compelling (if preliminary) explanations of recalcitrance.

Varieties of Bias

“…This fits well with claims about the heterogeneity of (implicit) bias, seeHolroyd and Sweetman (2016), and views on which the content of bias is indeterminate, seeMadva (2017).28 For a broad sampling of empirical and philosophical approaches to implicit bias, seeBanaji and Greenwald (2013),Dovidio et al (2005),Gaertner and Dovidio (1986),Fazio (1990),Gawronski and Bodenhausen (2006);Gawronski and Bodenhausen (2014) on the one hand; andHolroyd et al (2017), Del Pinal andSpaulding (2018),Levy (2015),Mandelbaum (2015),Machery (2016), Soon (2019,Welpinghus (2019),Sullivan-Bissett (2019),Nanay (2021),Karlan (2021),Toribio (2021) on the other.29 This example comes originally fromDennett (1981, p. 107). SeeJohnson (2023b) for a comprehensive exploration of how different views about the structure of bias can intersect in interesting ways with questions of conscious accessibility.30 For canonical work on psychological essentialism, seeRothbart and Taylor (1992);Gelman (2004).…”

“…(2005), Gaertner and Dovidio (1986), Fazio (1990), Gawronski and Bodenhausen (2006); Gawronski and Bodenhausen (2014) on the one hand; and Holroyd et al. (2017), Del Pinal and Spaulding (2018), Levy (2015), Mandelbaum (2015), Machery (2016), Soon (2019), Welpinghus (2019), Sullivan‐Bissett (2019), Nanay (2021), Karlan (2021), Toribio (2021) on the other.…”