Implicit Measures of Attitudes

Increasingly used in social and behavioral science research, implicit measures aim to assess attitudes that respondents may not be willing to report directly, or of which they may not even be aware. This timely book brings together leading investigators to review currently available procedures and offer practical recommendations for their implementation and interpretation. The theoretical bases of the various approaches are explored and their respective strengths and limitations are critically examined. The volume also discusses current controversies facing the field and highlights promising avenues for future research.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction, Bernd Wittenbrink and Norbert Schwarz I. Procedures and Their Implementation 2. Measuring Attitudes through Priming, Bernd Wittenbrink 3. Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test: IV: What We Know (So Far) about the Method, Kristin A. Lane, Mahzarin R. Banaji, Brian A. Nosek, and Anthony G. Greenwald 4. Armed Only with Paper and Pencil: Low-Tech Measures of Implicit Attitudes, Patrick T. Vargas, Denise Sekaquaptewa, and William von Hippel 5. Attitudes as Mental and Neural States of Readiness: Using Physiological Measures to Study Implicit Attitudes, Tiffany A. Ito and John T. Cacioppo 6. Understanding Social Evaluations: What We Can (and Cannot) Learn from Neuroimaging, Andreas Olsson and Elizabeth A. Phelps II. Critical Perspectives 7. How to Define and Examine the Implicitness of Implicit Measures, Jan De Houwer and Agnes Moors 8. Paradigms We Live By: A Plea for More Basic Research on the Implicit Association Test, Dirk Wentura and Klaus Rothermund 9. Beyond the Attitude Object: Implicit Attitudes Spring from Object-Centered Contexts, Melissa J. Ferguson and John A. Bargh 10. Mental Representations Are States, Not Things: Implications for Implicit and Explicit Measurement, Eliot R. Smith and Frederica R. Conrey 11. What Do We Know about Implicit Attitude Measures and What Do We Have to Learn?, Bertram Gawronski and Galen V. Bodenhausen

About the Author :
Bernd Wittenbrink, PhD, is Professor of Behavioral Science in the Graduate School of Business and a member of the Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago. His research concerns the role that stereotypes and group attitudes play in social judgment and behavior. Dr. Wittenbrink’s work has been published in, among others, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. He serves as Associate Editor for the premier journal in the field, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Norbert Schwarz, DrPhil, is Provost Professor in the Department of Psychology and Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. His research interests focus on human judgment and cognition. Dr. Schwarz is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. His publications include 20 books and more than 200 journal articles and chapters..

Review :
In recent years, no development in the social sciences has been more exciting than the discovery of implicit attitudes and the pursuit of their measurement. Yet the challenges of developing suitable measures have surprised us all. Different techniques yielded different results, which has inspired richer theory building and produced important insights into the nature of human judgment and the mental representation of preferences. We now see longstanding debates and controversies in new ways. What more could a group of scientists hope for than to make such great progress, and at such a rapid rate? This wonderful book offers a terrific review of these accomplishments and identifies the challenges with which implicit attitude researchers will be grappling in the years to come.--Jon Krosnick, PhD, Departments of Communication, Political Science, and Psychology, Stanford University This is a book for serious students and practitioners of attitudes research. It offers comprehensive coverage of the new wave of implicit measures, written by some of the top researchers in the field. The chapters provide strong theoretical grounding as well as practical information on the 'how-tos' of each measure. This book would be an ideal text for graduate-level courses on attitudes.--Jeffrey Sherman, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis The measurement of socially significant attitudes has taken a giant leap forward due to the recent development of implicit measures, which are capable of assessing relatively automatic evaluations. This volume presents a scholarly yet very accessible treatment of these new measures, describing them in detail and evaluating their merits. Additionally, the volume shows how these measurement advances have permitted us to address new and fundamental issues about the nature of human judgment. This is a superb, integrative treatment of a major advance in the social and behavioral sciences. I will certainly use it as a text in my social psychology graduate proseminar; it is also likely to be used in advanced undergraduate courses devoted to attitudes, judgment, and assessment.--Charles M. Judd, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Boulder The study of implicit attitudes is the most significant development in attitude theory and research in recent years. This timely volume features analyses by the major contributors to this important development. The chapter authors skillfully present both the promise and the uncertainties of the many implicit measures that have been proposed. This book is essential reading not only for attitude researchers, but also for all researchers who wish to understand whether they should incorporate implicit measures into their studies. I would definitely use the book in a graduate course in attitudes.--Alice H. Eagly, PhD, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University -Wittenbrink and Schwarz drew together a distinguished group of authors whose expertise concerns how best to examine the interrelations among attitudes, social judgments, and behaviors....Reader-researchers should consider this book a valuable resource, one that nicely characterizes current views on simple as well as complex measures of implicit attitudes.--Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 1/7/2007ƒƒ Wittenbrink and Schwarz have assembled an impressive group of experts on attitude measurement....I would highly recommend this book for anyone thinking about incorporating the use of implicit attitude measures into his or her research and feel that the book would make an excellent addition to any graduate-level course on attitudes or attitude measurement. --PsycCRITIQUES, 1/7/2007 In recent years, no development in the social sciences has been more exciting than the discovery of implicit attitudes and the pursuit of their measurement. Yet the challenges of developing suitable measures have surprised us all. Different techniques yielded different results, which has inspired richer theory building and produced important insights into the nature of human judgment and the mental representation of preferences. We now see longstanding debates and controversies in new ways. What more could a group of scientists hope for than to make such great progress, and at such a rapid rate? This wonderful book offers a terrific review of these accomplishments and identifies the challenges with which implicit attitude researchers will be grappling in the years to come.--Jon Krosnick, PhD, Departments of Communication, Political Science, and Psychology, Stanford University This is a book for serious students and practitioners of attitudes research. It offers comprehensive coverage of the new wave of implicit measures, written by some of the top researchers in the field. The chapters provide strong theoretical grounding as well as practical information on the 'how-tos' of each measure. This book would be an ideal text for graduate-level courses on attitudes.--Jeffrey Sherman, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis The measurement of socially significant attitudes has taken a giant leap forward due to the recent development of implicit measures, which are capable of assessing relatively automatic evaluations. This volume presents a scholarly yet very accessible treatment of these new measures, describing them in detail and evaluating their merits. Additionally, the volume shows how these measurement advances have permitted us to address new and fundamental issues about the nature of human judgment. This is a superb, integrative treatment of a major advance in the social and behavioral sciences. I will certainly use it as a text in my social psychology graduate proseminar; it is also likely to be used in advanced undergraduate courses devoted to attitudes, judgment, and assessment.--Charles M. Judd, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Boulder The study of implicit attitudes is the most significant development in attitude theory and research in recent years. This timely volume features analyses by the major contributors to this important development. The chapter authors skillfully present both the promise and the uncertainties of the many implicit measures that have been proposed. This book is essential reading not only for attitude researchers, but also for all researchers who wish to understand whether they should incorporate implicit measures into their studies. I would definitely use the book in a graduate course in attitudes.--Alice H. Eagly, PhD, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University -Wittenbrink and Schwarz drew together a distinguished group of authors whose expertise concerns how best to examine the interrelations among attitudes, social judgments, and behaviors....Reader-researchers should consider this book a valuable resource, one that nicely characterizes current views on simple as well as complex measures of implicit attitudes.--Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 1/7/2007Æ’Æ’ Wittenbrink and Schwarz have assembled an impressive group of experts on attitude measurement....I would highly recommend this book for anyone thinking about incorporating the use of implicit attitude measures into his or her research and feel that the book would make an excellent addition to any graduate-level course on attitudes or attitude measurement. --PsycCRITIQUES, 1/7/2007