Toward a comprehensive understanding of executive cognitive function in implicit racial bias

Tiffany A Ito; Naomi P Friedman; Bruce D Bartholow; Joshua Correll; Chris Loersch; Lee J Altamirano; Akira Miyake

doi:10.1037/a0038557

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Toward a comprehensive understanding of executive cognitive function in implicit racial bias

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Toward a comprehensive understanding of executive cognitive function in implicit racial bias

Tiffany A Ito, Naomi P Friedman, Bruce D Bartholow, Joshua Correll, Chris Loersch, Lee J Altamirano and Akira Miyake

Journal of personality and social psychology, Vol.108(2), pp.187-218

02/01/2015

DOI: 10.1037/a0038557

PMCID: PMC4354845

PMID: 25603372

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https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038557View

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Abstract

Although performance on laboratory-based implicit bias tasks often is interpreted strictly in terms of the strength of automatic associations, recent evidence suggests that such tasks are influenced by higher-order cognitive control processes, so-called executive functions (EFs). However, extant work in this area has been limited by failure to account for the unity and diversity of EFs, focus on only a single measure of bias and/or EF, and relatively small sample sizes. The current study sought to comprehensively model the relation between individual differences in EFs and the expression of racial bias in 3 commonly used laboratory measures. Participants (N = 485) completed a battery of EF tasks (Session 1) and 3 racial bias tasks (Session 2), along with numerous individual difference questionnaires. The main findings were as follows: (a) measures of implicit bias were only weakly intercorrelated; (b) EF and estimates of automatic processes both predicted implicit bias and also interacted, such that the relation between automatic processes and bias expression was reduced at higher levels of EF; (c) specific facets of EF were differentially associated with overall task performance and controlled processing estimates across different bias tasks; (d) EF did not moderate associations between implicit and explicit measures of bias; and (e) external, but not internal, motivation to control prejudice depended on EF to reduce bias expression. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of global and specific EF abilities in determining expression of implicit racial bias.

Adolescent

Adult

African Continental Ancestry Group - psychology

Association

Dangerous Behavior

European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology

Executive Function

Female

Humans

Individuality

Inhibition (Psychology)

Internal-External Control

Male

Memory, Short-Term

Models, Psychological

Pattern Recognition, Visual

Racism - psychology

Saccades

Set (Psychology)

Surveys and Questionnaires

Young Adult

Details

Title: Subtitle: Toward a comprehensive understanding of executive cognitive function in implicit racial bias
Creators: Tiffany A Ito - Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Naomi P Friedman - University of Colorado Boulder
Bruce D Bartholow - University of Missouri
Joshua Correll - University of Colorado Boulder
Chris Loersch - University of Colorado Boulder
Lee J Altamirano - University of Colorado Boulder
Akira Miyake - University of Colorado Boulder
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of personality and social psychology, Vol.108(2), pp.187-218
DOI: 10.1037/a0038557
PMID: 25603372
PMCID: PMC4354845
NLM abbreviation: J Pers Soc Psychol
ISSN: 0022-3514
eISSN: 1939-1315
Grant note: R56 MH063207 / NIMH NIH HHS MH063207 / NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH063207 / NIMH NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 02/01/2015
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984446443902771

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