Reassessing the Predictive Validity of the IAT II: Reanalysis of Heider & Skowronski (2007)

Abstract

The authors reanalyzed data from a set of studies — J. D. Heider and J.J. Skowronski (2007) — that explored links between the race IAT and discriminatory behavior. The studies in that report were designed to have methodological improvements over past studies of predictive validity, and the authors concluded that links between race IAT scores and "prejudiced responding" and "discriminatory behavior" were supported. Our reanalysis reveals that this was not the case for either study. Study 1 was designed to test for links between the race IAT and competitive behavior in a prisoner’s dilemma game. We found a pattern not conveyed in the original report, which is that the IAT predicted greater competition with both White and Black opponents. The IAT did not predict racially biased behavior. Study 2 was designed to test for links between the race IAT and friendliness of verbal and nonverbal treatment of confederates. We found that the published results for Study 2 were based on erroneous IAT scores. Analysis of the true data revealed that the race IAT did not predict racially biased behavior. These results add to recent evidence calling into question the predictive validity of the race IAT.

Keywords: implicit bias, discrimination, Implicit Association Test, replication