A meta-analysis of procedures to change implicit measures

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Implicit measures assess automatic response biases.
• Understanding the malleability of implicit measures is crucial for psychological research.
• Previous research has yielded mixed results on the effectiveness of interventions targeting implicit processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically synthesize evidence on the effectiveness of various procedures in altering implicit measures.
• To evaluate the impact of these procedures on explicit and behavioral outcomes.
• To identify which types of procedures are most effective in changing implicit measures.

Main Methods:

• Network meta-analysis of 492 studies involving 87,418 participants.
• Examination of effects on implicit, explicit, and behavioral measures.
• Analysis of study characteristics, including manipulation types and duration.

Main Results:

• Implicit measures can be changed, but effect sizes are generally small (absolute d < 0.30).
• Procedures involving concept association, goal invocation, or mental resource depletion showed the largest effects on implicit measures.
• Changes in implicit measures showed minimal, inconsistent effects on explicit measures and trivial effects on behavior; mediation was not observed.

Conclusions:

• While implicit measures are malleable, the observed changes are often weak and transient.
• Effective procedures for altering implicit measures do not reliably translate into changes in explicit attitudes or behavior.
• Current interventions have limited practical implications for predicting or influencing real-world actions based on implicit measure changes.