Intersectional Implicit Bias: Evidence for Asymmetrically Compounding Bias and the Predominance of Target Gender

Paul Connor, Matthew Weeks, Jack Glaser, Serena Chen, Dacher Keltner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Little is known about implicit evaluations of complex, multiply categorizable social targets. Across five studies (N = 5,204), we investigated implicit evaluations of targets varying in race, gender, social class, and age. Overall, the largest and most consistent evaluative bias was pro-women/anti-men bias, followed by smaller but nonetheless consistent pro-upper-class/anti-lower-class biases. By contrast, we observed less consistent effects of targets’ race, no effects of targets’ age, and no consistent interactions between targetlevel categories. An integrative data analysis highlighted a number of moderating factors, but a stable prowomen/ anti-men and pro-upper-class/anti-lower-class bias across demographic groups. Overall, these results suggest that implicit biases compound across multiple categories asymmetrically, with a dominant category (here, gender) largely driving evaluations, and ancillary categories (here, social class and race) exerting relatively smaller additional effects.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)22-48
Number of pages27
JournalJournal of Personality and Social Psychology
Volume124
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 19 May 2022

Keywords

  • Implicit bias
  • Intersectionality
  • Person perception
  • Social class
  • Social cognition

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