Implicit Stereotypes and Prejudice

Abstract

The experimental study of implicit intergroup bias began soon after Crosby et al. concluded that Whites had something to hide. By adapting theories and methods from the study of implicit memory and unconscious perception, stereotype and prejudice researchers gained access to a new level of analysis. Particularly influential was the theory of spreading activation (e.g., Collins & Loftus, 1975; Posner & Snyder, 1975). According to this theory, concepts in one's cognitive representation of the world are spatially organized, such that associated concepts (e.g., bread-butter) are closer together than unassociated concepts (e.g., bread-doctor). Because of this arrangement, the activation of one concept causes the activation of nearby, associated concepts, but not distant, unassociated concepts through the process of spreading activation (for discussions of alternative accounts, see Neely, 1991; Ratcliff & McKoon, 1988). As a consequence, the presentation of one concept (e.g., bread) facilitates the subsequent processing of an associated concept (e.g., butter), compared with an unassociated concept (e.g., doctor). Most important, this sequence of events can occur without the perceiver's awareness or intention (i.e., implicitly), and it can be manipulated and studied experimentally.