Hidden Bias: Social Service Professionals' Attitudes toward Physical Disability.

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Disability Studies
• Social Work Research

Background:

• Implicit social cognition, or implicit bias, can influence social work practice.
• Understanding social service professionals' attitudes toward physical disability is crucial due to their work with this population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively analyze explicit and implicit attitudes of social service professionals toward physical disability.
• To identify factors correlating with these attitudes.
• To discuss interventions for reducing disability-related implicit bias.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative analysis of secondary 2023 data from 5,167 social service professionals (social workers, counselors).
• Descriptive and inferential statistical tests were employed.
• Assessment of both explicit and implicit attitudes towards physical disability.

Main Results:

• 70.3% reported no explicit preference, 23.7% preferred those without disabilities, 6.0% preferred those with disabilities.
• 77.8% showed implicit preference for people without disabilities, 13.7% had no implicit preference, 8.5% implicitly preferred those with disabilities.
• Significant discordance between explicit and implicit attitudes was observed, often with low explicit bias and high implicit bias. Age, gender, disability status, personal connections to disability, education, and political orientation correlated with attitudes.

Conclusions:

• A significant portion of social service professionals hold implicit biases against individuals with physical disabilities, contrasting with their stated explicit attitudes.
• Demographic and personal factors are associated with both explicit and implicit disability attitudes.
• Educational interventions are proposed to mitigate disability-related implicit bias in social work.