Implicit and explicit prejudice and interracial interaction.

TLDR

The study examined how Whites’ implicit racial associations and explicit attitudes influence behaviors and impressions during interracial interactions. The authors used response latency and self‑report measures to predict Whites’ verbal and nonverbal bias and perceived bias during interactions with a Black partner. Self‑reported attitudes predicted Whites’ verbal bias and perceived friendliness toward White versus Black partners, whereas response latency predicted nonverbal friendliness and observers’ perception of bias.

Abstract

The present research examined how implicit racial associations and explicit racial attitudes of Whites relate to behaviors and impressions in interracial interactions. Specifically, the authors examined how response latency and self-report measures predicted bias and perceptions of bias in verbal and nonverbal behavior exhibited by Whites while they interacted with a Black partner. As predicted, Whites' self-reported racial attitudes significantly predicted bias in their verbal behavior to Black relative to White confederates. Furthermore, these explicit attitudes predicted how much friendlier Whites felt that they behaved toward White than Black partners. In contrast, the response latency measure significantly predicted Whites' nonverbal friendliness and the extent to which the confederates and observers perceived bias in the participants' friendliness.