Reducing Implicit Prejudice

Abstract

Implicit prejudices are social preferences that exist outside of conscious awareness or conscious control. In this review, we summarize evidence for three mechanisms that influence the expression of implicit prejudice: associative change, contextual change, and change in control over implicit prejudice. We then review the evidence (or lack thereof) for answers to five open issues in implicit prejudice reduction research: 1) what shows effectiveness in real-world application; 2) what doesn’t work for implicit prejudice reduction; 3) what interventions produce long-term changes in implicit prejudice; 4) measurement diversity in implicit prejudice reduction research; and 5) the relationship between implicit prejudice and behavior. Addressing these issues provide an agenda for clarifying the conditions and implications of reducing implicit prejudice.

Keywords: prejudice, discrimination, implicit social cognition, psychology, Implicit Association Test, malleability, change