In modern society, people do not openly express discriminatory attitudes as much as they used to. Many people believe they are egalitarians, for example, that they do not discriminate against others based on race. However, people still hold some attitudes or stereotypes towards social groups implicitly. In other words, implicit biases can differ from a person’s conscious beliefs and values. It is known that the values of implicit biases measured by the IAT are correlated with discriminatory behaviors.
I have organized the measurement methods and classification of results in this table. In this context, “explicit” refers to what people express through responses to questions or checklists, while “implicit” refers to what is measured by the IAT. The IAT scores are graded, but for simplicity, they have been divided into two categories.
Let’s consider cases where attitudes or stereotypes towards social groups or individuals are inconsistent between explicit and implicit measures.
When someone explicitly expresses attitudes or stereotypes towards a social group or individual, but these are not measured implicitly (EO), it may be due to social norms or situational pressures. For example, someone might act as a fan of a sports team in a region where it is popular, even if they are indifferent to it implicitly.
Conversely, when someone does not explicitly express attitudes or stereotypes but they are measured implicitly (OI), it may be due to social norms that discourage such expressions. For instance, someone might not openly express racist attitudes because it is socially unacceptable, but implicit biases are still measured. Alternatively, someone might believe they are not racist, yet implicit biases are detected.
As mentioned in the above examples, when something is not explicit, meaning it is not expressed by a person, it can be divided into cases where the person deliberately does not express it and cases where there is nothing to express according to their will or beliefs. When a person deliberately does not express something but it is observed implicitly (OI), it can become explicit (EI) depending on the situation, such as when expression is permitted. Similarly, a state (EI) can also become a state (OI). This applies to the combinations of state (EO) and state (OO) as well.
In summary, the reliability of explicit data is debatable due to factors like self-deception and impression management. Self-deception refers to falsehoods that the person themselves may not recognize as lies, while impression management involves strategies to be viewed more favorably by others.
Many people find the revelation of implicit biases (OI) uncomfortable. For those who consciously avoid expressing such biases, the exposure can be unpleasant, and for those whose implicit biases contradict their beliefs, it can be hard to accept. Those who are discriminated against may feel hurt and anxious.
From now on, I would like to examine how implicit biases lead to discriminatory behaviors.
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