Skip to main content
Log in

What we can (and can’t) infer about implicit bias from debiasing experiments

Synthese Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The received view of implicit bias holds that it is associative and unreflective. Recently, the received view has been challenged. Some argue that implicit bias is not predicated on “any” associative process, but it is unreflective. These arguments rely, in part, on debiasing experiments. They proceed as follows. If implicit bias is associative and unreflective, then certain experimental manipulations cannot change implicitly biased behavior. However, these manipulations can change such behavior. So, implicit bias is not associative and unreflective. This paper finds philosophical and empirical problems with that argument. When the problems are solved, the conclusion is not quite right: implicit bias is not necessarily unreflective, but it seems to be associative. Further, the paper shows that even if legitimate non-associative interventions on implicit bias exist, then both the received view and its recent contender would be false. In their stead would be interactionism or minimalism about implicit bias.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, J. R., & Bower, G. H. (1980). Human associative memory. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bago, B., & De Neys, W. (2017). Fast logic?: Examining the time course assumption of dual process theory. Cognition, 158, 90–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.10.014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Anan, Y., & Nosek, B. A. (2014). A comparative investigation of seven indirect attitude measures. Behavior Research Methods, 46(3), 668–688. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0410-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bargh, J. A. (1992). The ecology of automaticity: Toward establishing the conditions needed to produce automatic processing effects. The American Journal of Psychology, 105(2), 181–199. https://doi.org/10.2307/1423027.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, D. J., Berger, J. O., Johannesson, M., Nosek, B. A., Wagenmakers, E.-J., Berk, R., et al. (2017). Redefine statistical significance. Nature Human. Behaviour, 1, 6–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J. (2018). Implicit attitudes and awareness. Synthese. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-018-1754-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blair, I. V., Ma, J. E., & Lenton, A. P. (2001). Imagining stereotypes away: the moderation of implicit stereotypes through mental imagery. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(5), 828.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blake, A. (2016, September 26). The first Trump-Clinton presidential debate transcript, annotated. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/26/the-first-trump-clinton-presidential-debate-transcript-annotated/.

  • Brewer, M. B. (1988). A dual process model of impression formation. In T. Srull & R. S. Wyer (Eds.), Advances in social cognition (Vol. 1, pp. 1–36). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briñol, P., Petty, R. E., & McCaslin, M. J. (2009). Changing attitudes on implicit versus explicit measures: What is the difference. In R. H. Fazio, R. E. Petty, & P. Briñol (Eds.), Attitudes: Insights from the new implicit measures (pp. 285–326). London: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brownstein, M. (2018). The implicit mind: Cognitive architecture, the self, and ethics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckner, C. (2017). Rational inference: the lowest bounds. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calanchini, J., Gonsalkorale, K., Sherman, J. W., & Klauer, K. C. (2013). Counter-prejudicial training reduces activation of biased associations and enhances response monitoring. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43(5), 321–325. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1941.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Camerer, C. F., Dreber, A., Holzmeister, F., Ho, T.-H., Huber, J., Johannesson, M., et al. (2018). Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0399-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carley, L. (2018, October 31). Breaking the bias habit: An evidence-based intervention in Duke’s Biology Department|Duke Graduate School. Retrieved November 6, 2018, from https://gradschool.duke.edu/professional-development/blog/breaking-bias-habit-evidence-based-intervention-duke-s-biology.

  • Carnap, R. (1950). Logical foundations of probability. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cone, J., Mann, T. C., & Ferguson, M. J. (2017). Chapter three—Changing our implicit minds: How, when, and why implicit evaluations can be rapidly revised. In J. M. Olson (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 56, pp. 131–199). Lodon: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2017.03.001.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Conrey, F. R., Sherman, J. W., Gawronski, B., Hugenberg, K., & Groom, C. J. (2005). Separating multiple processes in implicit social cognition: The quad model of implicit task performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(4), 469–487. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.4.469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corneille, O., & Stahl, C. (2018). Associative attitude learning: A closer look at evidence and how it relates to attitude models. Personality and Social Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868318763261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cvencek, D., Greenwald, A. G., Brown, A. S., Gray, N. S., & Snowden, R. J. (2010). Faking of the implicit association test is statistically detectable and partly correctable. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 32(4), 302–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2010.519236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dacey, M. (2016). Rethinking associations in psychology. Synthese, 193, 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasgupta, N., & Greenwald, A. G. (2001). On the malleability of automatic attitudes: combating automatic prejudice with images of admired and disliked individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(5), 800–814. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.81.5.800.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Houwer, J. (2006). Using the implicit association test does not rule out an impact of conscious propositional knowledge on evaluative conditioning. Learning and Motivation, 37(2), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2005.12.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Houwer, J. (2018). Propositional models of evaluative conditioning. Social Psychological Bulletin, 13(3), e28046. https://doi.org/10.5964/spb.v13i3.28046.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Del Pinal, G. D., & Spaulding, S. (2018). Conceptual centrality and implicit bias. Mind and Language, 33(1), 95–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(1), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.56.1.5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devine, P. G., Forscher, P. S., Austin, A. J., & Cox, W. T. L. (2012). Long-term reduction in implicit race bias: A prejudice habit-breaking intervention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(6), 1267–1278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doris, J. M. (2015). Talking to our selves: Reflection, ignorance, and agency. Oxford: OUP Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, J. S. B. T. (2009). How many dual process theories do we need: One, two or many? In J. S. B. T. Evans & K. Frankish (Eds.), In two minds: Dual processes and beyond (pp. 31–54). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, J., & Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-process theories of higher cognition advancing the debate. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(3), 223–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrin, A. (2017). Good moral judgment and decision-making without deliberation. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 55(1), 68–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forscher, P. S., Lai, C., Axt, J., Ebersole, C. R., Herman, M., Devine, P. G., et al. (2018). A meta-analysis of procedures to change implicit measures. Open Science. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dv8tu.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frankish, K. (2010). Dual-process and dual-system theories of reasoning. Philosophy Compass, 5(10), 914–926.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frederick, S. (2005). Cognitive reflection and decision making. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(4), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1257/089533005775196732.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fridland, E. (2016). Skill and motor control: intelligence all the way down. Philosophical Studies, 174(6), 1539–1560. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-016-0771-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fridland, E. (forthcoming). Longer, smaller, faster, stronger, on skills and intelligence. Philosophical Psychology.

  • Gaertner, S. L., & McLaughlin, J. P. (1983). Racial stereotypes: Associations and ascriptions of positive and negative characteristics. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46(1), 23–30. https://doi.org/10.2307/3033657.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galinsky, A. D., & Moskowitz, G. B. (2000). Perspective-taking: Decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility, and in-group favoritism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(4), 708.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gawronski, B. (in press). Six lessons for a cogent science of implicit bias and its criticism. Perspectives on Psychological Science. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329656554_Six_Lessons_for_a_Cogent_Science_of_Implicit_Bias_and_Its_Criticism.

  • Gawronski, B., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2014). The associative—Propositional evaluation model: Operating principles and operating conditions of evaluation. In J. W. Sherman, B. Gawronski, & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual-process theories of the social mind (pp. 188–203). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gawronski, B., Hofmann, W., & Wilbur, C. J. (2006). Are “implicit” attitudes unconscious? Consciousness and Cognition, 15(3), 485–499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.11.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gawronski, B., Morrison, M., Phills, C. E., & Galdi, S. (2017). Temporal stability of implicit and explicit measures: A longitudinal analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(3), 300–312. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216684131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gawronski, B., Walther, E., & Blank, H. (2005). Cognitive consistency and the formation of interpersonal attitudes: Cognitive balance affects the encoding of social information. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41(6), 618–626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2004.10.005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gendler, T. S. (2008a). Alief and belief. The Journal of Philosophy, 105(10), 634–663.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gendler, T. S. (2008b). Alief in action (and reaction). Mind and Language, 23(5), 552–585.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenwald, A. G., Andrew, T., Uhlmann, E. L., & Banaji, M. R. (2009). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-analysis of predictive validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(1), 17–41. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenwald, A. G., Banaji, M. R., & Nosek, B. A. (2015). Statistically small effects of the Implicit Association Test can have societally large effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(4), 553–561. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenwald, A., Gonzalez, R., Harris, R. J., & Guthrie, D. (1996). Effect sizes and p values: What should be reported and what should be replicated? Psychophysiology, 33(2), 175–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1996.tb02121.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, A., Judd, C. M., Hirsh, H. K., & Blair, I. V. (2014). Awareness of implicit attitudes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General., 143, 1369–1392. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035028.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helton, G. (2017, March 23). Personal communication at 109th annual meeting of the Southern Society for Psychology and Philosophy.

  • Holroyd, J., & Sweetman, J. (2016). The heterogeneity of implicit bias. In M. Brownstein & J. Saul (Eds.), Implicit bias and philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horcajo, J., Briñol, P., & Petty, R. E. (2010). Consumer persuasion: Indirect change and implicit balance. Psychology & Marketing, 27(10), 938–963. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huebner, B. (2016). Implicit bias, reinforcement learning, and scaffolded moral cognition. In M. Brownstein & J. Saul (Eds.), Implicit bias and philosophy (Vol. 1). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hume, D. (1978). A treatise of human nature. In L. A. Selby-Bigge & P. H. Nidditch (Eds.), (2nd edn). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Hume, D. (1983). An enquiry concerning the principles of morals. In E. Steinberg & J. B. Schneewind (Eds.), Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.

  • Hütter, M., & Sweldens, S. (2018). Dissociating controllable and uncontrollable effects of affective stimuli on attitudes and consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(2), 320–349. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jost, J. T. (2018). The IAT is dead, long live the IAT: Context-sensitive measures of implicit attitudes are indispensable to social and political psychology. Current Directions in Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418797309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joy-Gaba, J. A., & Nosek, B. A. (2010). The surprisingly limited malleability of implicit racial evaluations. Social Psychology, 41(3), 137–146. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000020.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking. Fast and Slow: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kawakami, K., Dovidio, J. F., Moll, J., Hermsen, S., & Russin, A. (2000). Just say no (to stereotyping): effects of training in the negation of stereotypic associations on stereotype activation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(5), 871–888.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kawakami, K., Phills, C. E., Steele, J. R., & Dovidio, J. F. (2007). (Close) distance makes the heart grow fonder: Improving implicit racial attitudes and interracial interactions through approach behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 957–971. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.957.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korsgaard, C. M. (1996). The sources of normativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krajbich, I., Bartling, B., Hare, T., & Fehr, E. (2015). Rethinking fast and slow based on a critique of reaction-time reverse inference. Nature Communications, 6, 7455.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lai, C. K., Skinner, A. L., Cooley, E., Murrar, S., Brauer, M., Devos, T., et al. (2016). Reducing implicit racial preferences: II. Intervention effectiveness across time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(8), 1001–1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, N. (2015). Neither fish nor fowl: Implicit Attitudes as patchy endorsements. Noûs, 49(4), 800–823.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, N. (2017). Implicit bias and moral responsibility: Probing the data. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 94(1), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Machery, E. (2016). De-freuding implicit attitudes. In M. Brownstein & J. Saul (Eds.), Implicit bias and philosophy (Vol. 1, pp. 104–129). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madva, A. (2015). Why implicit attitudes are (probably) not beliefs. Synthese, 193(8), 2659–2684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-015-0874-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madva, A. (2017). Biased against DEBIASING: On the role of (institutionally sponsored) self-transformation in the struggle against prejudice. Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.12405314.0004.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mandelbaum, E. (2013). Thinking is believing. Inquiry, 57(1), 55–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandelbaum, E. (2016). Attitude, inference, association: on the propositional structure of implicit bias. Noûs, 50(3), 629.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandelbaum, E. (2017). Associationist theories of thought. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (summer 2017). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/associationist-thought/

  • McCloskey, D. N., & Ziliak, S. T. (1996). The standard error of regressions. Journal of Economic Literature, 34(1), 97–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCoy, M. K. (2018, June 1). Researcher: Despite good intentions, anti-bias training can actually backfire. Wisconsin Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.wpr.org/researcher-despite-good-intentions-anti-bias-training-can-actually-backfire.

  • Melnikoff, D. E., & Bargh, J. A. (2018). The mythical number two. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(4), 280–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.02.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, D. (2018, May 29). Starbucks is closing today for its company-wide unconscious bias training: Here’s what you need to know. Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2018/05/29/starbucks-closing-today-unconscious-bias-training/.

  • Monteith, M. J. (1993). Self-regulation of prejudiced responses: Implications for progress in prejudice-reduction efforts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(3), 469.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moors, A., & De Houwer, J. (2006). Automaticity: A theoretical and conceptual analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 297–326. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newell, A. (1973). You can’t play 20 questions with nature and win: Projective comments on the papers of this symposium (p. 2033). Paper: Computer Science Department.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R. (2001). The go/no-go association task. Social Cognition, 19(6), 625–666. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.19.6.625.20886.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2006). Reducing automatically activated racial prejudice through implicit evaluative conditioning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(4), 421–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167205284004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251), 4716. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oswald, F. L., Mitchell, G., Blanton, H., Jaccard, J., & Tetlock, P. E. (2015). Using the IAT to predict ethnic and racial discrimination: Small effect sizes of unknown societal significance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(4), 562–571. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000023.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Payne, K., Niemi, L., & Doris, J. (2018, March 27). How to think about “Implicit Bias.” Scientific American. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-think-about-implicit-bias/

  • Pennycook, G., Cheyne, J. A., Koehler, D. J., & Fugelsang, J. A. (2015). Is the cognitive reflection test a measure of both reflection and intuition? Behavior Research Methods, 1–8.

  • Pennycook, G., Fugelsang, J. A., Koehler, D. J., & Thompson, V. A. (2016). Commentary: Rethinking fast and slow based on a critique of reaction-time reverse inference. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennycook, G., Neys, W. D., Evans, J. S. B. T., Stanovich, K. E., & Thompson, V. A. (2018). The mythical dual-process typology. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.04.008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perugini, M. (2005). Predictive models of implicit and explicit attitudes. British Journal of Social Psychology, 44(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466604X23491.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perugini, M., Richetin, J., & Zogmaister, C. (2010). Prediction of behavior. Handbook of Implicit Social Cognition: Measurement, Theory, and Applications, 10, 255–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, U. (2018). Implicit bias, ideological bias, and epistemic risks in philosophy. Mind & Language, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12194

  • Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(5), 751.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M. I., & Snyder, C. R. R. (1975). Attention and cognitive control. In R. L. Solso (Ed.), Information processing and cognition: The Loyola symposium. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quilty-Dunn, J., & Mandelbaum, E. (2017). Against dispositionalism: belief in cognitive science. Philosophical Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-0962-x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richeson, J. A., & Nussbaum, R. J. (2004). The impact of multiculturalism versus color-blindness on racial bias. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(3), 417–423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2003.09.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rydell, R. J., & McConnell, A. R. (2006). Understanding implicit and explicit attitude change: A systems of reasoning analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(6), 995–1008. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.6.995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saul, J. (2013a). Implicit bias, stereotype threat and women in philosophy. In K. Hutchison & F. Jenkins (Eds.), Women in philosophy: What needs to change (pp. 39–60). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saul, J. (2013b). Scepticism and Implicit Bias. Disputatio, 5(37), 243–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwenkler, J. (2018). Self-knowledge and its limits. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 15(1), 85–95. https://doi.org/10.1163/17455243-01501005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwitzgebel, E. (2002). A phenomenal, dispositional account of belief. Noûs, 36(2), 249–275.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwitzgebel, E. (2010). Acting contrary to our professed beliefs or the gulf between occurrent judgment and dispositional belief. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 91(4), 531–553.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sechrist, G. B., & Stangor, C. (2001). Perceived consensus influences intergroup behavior and stereotype accessibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(4), 645–654.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shea, N., & Frith, C. D. (2016). Dual-process theories and consciousness: the case for ‘Type Zero’ cognition. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2016(1), 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2013). Life after P-Hacking. In Meeting of the society for personality and social psychology (p. 38). New Orleans, LA.

  • Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2018). False-positive citations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(2), 255–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617698146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sloman, S. A. (1996). The empirical case for two systems of reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 119(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.119.1.3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (2018). Implicit bias, moral agency, and moral responsibility. In G. Rosen, A. Byrne, J. Cohen, E. Harman, & S. Shiffrin (Eds.), The Norton introduction to philosophy (2nd ed., pp. 772–781). New York: W. W. Norton and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K. E. (2009). Distinguishing the reflective, algorithmic, and autonomous minds: Is it time for a tri-process theory? In J. S. B. T. Evans & K. Frankish (Eds.), In Two minds: Dual processes and beyond (pp. 55–88).

  • Strack, F., & Deutsch, R. (2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(3), 220–247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan-Bissett, E. (2015). Implicit bias, confabulation, and epistemic innocence. Consciousness and Cognition, 33, 548–560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.10.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun, R. (2016). Implicit and explicit processes: Their relation, interaction, and competition. In L. Macchi, M. Bagassi, & R. Viale (Eds.), Cognitive unconscious and human rationality (pp. 257–274). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toribio, J. (2018a). Accessibility, implicit bias, and epistemic justification. Synthese, 10, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-018-1795-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toribio, J. (2018a,b). Implicit bias: From social structure to representational format. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 33(1), 41–60.

  • Tyler, J. M., & McCullough, J. D. (2009). Violating prescriptive stereotypes on job resumes: A self-presentational perspective. Management Communication Quarterly, 23(2), 272–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318909341412.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dessel, P., De Houwer, J., Roets, A., & Gast, A. (2016). Failures to change stimulus evaluations by means of subliminal approach and avoidance training. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(1), e1–e15. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000039.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodward, J. (2016). Causation and Manipulability. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2016). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/causation-mani/

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Mike Bishop, Mike Dacey, Bryce Huebner, Luis Rosa, John Schwenkler, anonymous comments on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks to Istvan S. N. Berkeley, John Bickle, David Chalmers, Gabriel De Marco, Grace Helton, Zoe Jenkin, Eric Mandelbaum, Michele Merritt, Valentina Petrolina, Jake Quilty-Dunn, Susanna Siegel, and Evan Westra for shrewd comments on previous presentations of this paper. Thanks to Cameron Buckner, Bertram Gawronski, Angela Smith, and Ege Yumusak for helpful personal correspondence about this project more generally.

Funding

This research was supported, in part, by a graduate assistantship from the Graduate School at Florida State University, by travel funding from the Congress of Graduate Students at Florida State University, by travel funding from the Department of Philosophy at Florida State University, and by a Graduate Student Travel Award from the American Philosophical Association.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nick Byrd.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

No declarations of interest to report.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations

Appendix: Additional debiasing experiments

Appendix: Additional debiasing experiments

The following list includes additional experiments that attempt to change implicit biases in behavior. These experiments involve instances of implicit bias than could not be discussed in sufficient detail in the main text, such as implicit biases about gender, sexual orientation, political orientation, consumer products, substance use, pseudowords, and more. Some of these experiments employ indirect measures of bias besides the IAT. The list was composed of recommendations from reviewers, various conference participants, and Google Scholar alerts for new publications by or related to authors already cited in the main text.

  • Andreychik, M. R., & Gill, M. J. (2012). Do negative implicit associations indicate negative attitudes? Social explanations moderate whether ostensible “negative” associations are prejudice-based or empathy-based. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(5), 1082–1093. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.05.006.

  • Arendt, F., Marquart, F., & Matthes, J. (2015). Effects of Right-Wing Populist Political Advertising on Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes. Journal of Media Psychology, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000139.

  • Arendt, F., & Northup, T. (2015). Effects of Long-Term Exposure to News Stereotypes on Implicit and Explicit Attitudes. International Journal of Communication, 9(0), 21.

  • Charlesworth, T. E. S., & Banaji, M. R. (2019). Patterns of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes: I. Long-Term Change and Stability From 2007 to 2016. Psychological Science, 0956797618813087. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618813087.

  • Dasgupta, N., McGhee, D. E., Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (2000). Automatic Preference for White Americans: Eliminating the Familiarity Explanation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 36(3), 316–328. https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.1999.1418.

  • Dasgupta, N., & Rivera, L. M. (2008). When Social Context Matters: The Influence of Long–Term Contact and Short–Term Exposure to Admired Outgroup Members on Implicit Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions. Social Cognition, 26(1), 112–123. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2008.26.1.112.

  • Everett, J. A. C., Schellhaas, F. M. H., Earp, B. D., Ando, V., Memarzia, J., Parise, C. V., … Hewstone, M. (2014). Covered in stigma? The impact of differing levels of Islamic head-covering on explicit and implicit biases toward Muslim women. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45(2), 90–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12278.

  • Forehand, M. R., & Perkins, A. (2005). Implicit Assimilation and Explicit Contrast: A Set/Reset Model of Response to Celebrity Voice-Overs. Journal of Consumer Research, 32(3), 435–441. https://doi.org/10.1086/497555.

  • French, A. R., Franz, T. M., Phelan, L. L., & Blaine, B. E. (2013). Reducing Muslim/Arab Stereotypes Through Evaluative Conditioning. The Journal of Social Psychology, 153(1), 6–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2012.706242.

  • Gawronski, B., Bodenhausen, G. V., & Becker, A. P. (2007). I like it, because I like myself: Associative self-anchoring and post-decisional change of implicit evaluations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(2), 221–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2006.04.001.

  • Gawronski, B., & Strack, F. (2004). On the propositional nature of cognitive consistency: Dissonance changes explicit, but not implicit attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(4), 535–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2003.10.005.

  • Gawronski, B., & LeBel, E. P. (2008). Understanding patterns of attitude change: When implicit measures show change, but explicit measures do not. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(5), 1355–1361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.04.005.

  • Han, H. A., Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2006). The influence of experimentally created extrapersonal associations on the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(3), 259–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2005.04.006.

  • Hofmann, W., De Houwer, J., Perugini, M., Baeyens, F., & Crombez, G. (2010). Evaluative conditioning in humans: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), 390–421. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018916.

  • Horcajo, J., Briñol, P., & Petty, R. E. (2010). Consumer persuasion: Indirect change and implicit balance. Psychology & Marketing, 27(10), 938–963. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20367.

  • Hu, X., Antony, J. W., Creery, J. D., Vargas, I. M., Bodenhausen, G. V., & Paller, K. A. (2015). Unlearning implicit social biases during sleep. Science, 348(6238), 1013–1015. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa3841.

  • Hughes, S., Ye, Y., Van Dessel, P., & De Houwer, J. (2018). When People Co-occur With Good or Bad Events: Graded Effects of Relational Qualifiers on Evaluative Conditioning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0146167218781340. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218781340.

  • Kinoshita, S., & Peek-O’leary, M. (2006). Two bases of the compatibility effect in the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(12), 2102–2120. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210500451141.

  • Lai, C. K., Marini, M., Lehr, S. A., Cerruti, C., Shin, J.-E. L., Joy-Gaba, J. A., … Nosek, B. A. (2014). Reducing implicit racial preferences: I. A comparative investigation of 17 interventions. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 143(4), 1765–1785. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036260.

  • Mann, T. C., & Ferguson, M. J. (2015). Can we undo our first impressions?: The role of reinterpretation in reversing implicit evaluations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 823–849. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000021.

  • Mele, M. L., Federici, S., & Dennis, J. L. (2014). Believing Is Seeing: Fixation Duration Predicts Implicit Negative Attitudes. PLoS ONE, 9(8), e105106. Doi:0.1371/journal.pone.0105106.

  • Miles, E., & Crisp, R. J. (2014). A meta-analytic test of the imagined contact hypothesis. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 17(1), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430213510573.

  • Moskowitz, G. B., Gollwitzer, P. M., Wasel, W., & Schaal, B. (1999). Preconscious Control of Stereotype Activation Through Chronic Egalitarian Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(1), 167–184. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.77.1.167.

  • Ramos, M. R., Barreto, M., Ellemers, N., Moya, M., Ferreira, L., & Calanchini, J. (2016). Exposure to sexism can decrease implicit gender stereotype bias. European Journal of Social Psychology, 46(4), 455–466. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2165.

  • Rothermund, K., & Wentura, D. (2004). Underlying Processes in the Implicit Association Test: Dissociating Salience From Associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133(2), 139–165. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.133.2.139.

  • Rudman, L. A., Ashmore, R. D., & Gary, M. L. (2001). Unlearning automatic biases: the malleability of implicit prejudice and stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(5), 856–868.

  • Rudman, L. A., & Lee, M. R. (2002). Implicit and Explicit Consequences of Exposure to Violent and Misogynous Rap Music. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 5(2), 133–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430202005002541.

  • Rudman, L. A., & Phelan, J. E. (2010). The effect of priming gender roles on women’s implicit gender beliefs and career aspirations. Social Psychology, 41(3), 192–202. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000027.

  • Sellaro, R., Derks, B., Nitsche, M. A., Hommel, B., van den Wildenberg, W. P. M., van Dam, K., & Colzato, L. S. (2015). Reducing Prejudice Through Brain Stimulation. Brain Stimulation, 8(5), 91–897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2015.04.003.

  • Smith, C. T., & De Houwer, J. (2015). Hooked on a feeling: affective anti-smoking messages are more effective than cognitive messages at changing implicit evaluations of smoking. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01488.

  • Smith, C. T., De Houwer, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2013). Consider the Source: Persuasion of Implicit Evaluations Is Moderated by Source Credibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(2), 193–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167212472374.

  • Stell, A. J., & Farsides, T. (2015). Brief loving-kindness meditation reduces racial bias, mediated by positive other-regarding emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9514-x.

  • Stewart, T. L., Latu, I. M., Kawakami, K., & Myers, A. C. (2010). Consider the situation: Reducing automatic stereotyping through Situational Attribution Training. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 221–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.09.004.

  • Tello, N., Bocage-Barthélémy, Y., Dandaba, M., Jaafari, N., & Chatard, A. (2018). Evaluative conditioning: A brief computer-delivered intervention to reduce college student drinking. Addictive Behaviors, 82, 14–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.02.018.

  • Vanaelst, J., Spruyt, A., & De Houwer, J. (2016). How to Modify (Implicit) Evaluations of Fear-Related Stimuli: Effects of Feature-Specific Attention Allocation. Psychopathology, 717. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00717.

  • Van Dessel, P., Ye, Y., & De Houwer, J. (2018). Changing Deep-Rooted Implicit Evaluation in the Blink of an Eye: Negative Verbal Information Shifts Automatic Liking of Gandhi. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1948550617752064. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617752064.

  • Van Dessel, P., Gawronski, B., Smith, C. T., & De Houwer, J. (2017). Mechanisms underlying approach-avoidance instruction effects on implicit evaluation: Results of a preregistered adversarial collaboration. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 69, 23-32.

  • Van Dessel, P., De Houwer, J., & Smith, C. T. (2017). Relational information moderates approach-avoidance instruction effects on implicit evaluation. Acta Psychologica. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.03.016.

  • Van Dessel, P., De Houwer, J., Roets, A., & Gast, A. (2016). Failures to change stimulus evaluations by means of subliminal approach and avoidance training. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(1), e1-e15. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000039.

  • Vorauer, J. D. (2012). Completing the implicit association test reduces positive intergroup interaction behavior. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1168–1175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612440457.

  • Waiguny, M. K. J., Nelson, M. R., & Marko, B. (2013). How Advergame Content Influences Explicit and Implicit Brand Attitudes: When Violence Spills Over. Journal of Advertising, 42(2–3), 155–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2013.774590.

  • Wittenbrink, B., Judd, C. M., & Park, B. (1997). Evidence for Racial Prejudice at the Implicit Level and Its Relationship With Questionnaire Measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(2), 262–274.

  • Yoshida, E., Peach, J. M., Zanna, M. P., & Spencer, S. J. (2012). Not all automatic associations are created equal: How implicit normative evaluations are distinct from implicit attitudes and uniquely predict meaningful behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(3), 694–706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.09.013.

  • Zanon, R., De Houwer, J., Gast, A., & Smith, C. T. (2014). When does relational information influence evaluative conditioning? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67(11), 2105-2122. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.907324.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Byrd, N. What we can (and can’t) infer about implicit bias from debiasing experiments. Synthese 198, 1427–1455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02128-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02128-6

Keywords

Navigation