SS78 - Positive Exemplars and Implicit Attitudes Towards Deaf People
SCURS Disciplines
Psychology
Document Type
General Poster
Invited Presentation Choice
Not Applicable
Abstract
People readily form attitudes towards the various ideas, things, and people they encounter. Some attitudes can be measured directly, but other attitudes make more sense to measure at the implicit level. These implicit attitudes people hold can bias the way we think and feel about people, even outside of conscious control. A growing area of research deals with how these implicit attitudes can influence how people react to people with disabilities (Carvalho-Freitas and Stathi, 2016). One way to evaluate people’s attitudes is by utilizing the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computer task that requires participants to sort positive affect words and negative affect words in tandem with one image set vs another (Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz, 1998). Exposure to certain positive exemplars can decrease negative attitudes towards certain people groups (Kashihara and Sakomoto, 2018). The goal of the current research was to evaluate underlying biases towards Deaf individuals, a potentially invisible disability. To this end, we developed an Implicit Association Test using images of Deaf individuals with visible hearing devices (cochlear implants or external hearing aids). Prior to taking the IAT test, participants were randomly assigned an exemplar condition to determine if reading a positive exemplar before taking the IAT would reduce biases towards those with visible hearing devices.
People readily form attitudes towards the various ideas, things, and people they encounter. Some attitudes can be measured directly, but other attitudes make more sense to measure at the implicit level. These implicit attitudes people hold can bias the way we think and feel about people, even outside of conscious control. A growing area of research deals with how these implicit attitudes can influence how people react to people with disabilities (Carvalho-Freitas and Stathi, 2016). One way to evaluate people’s attitudes is by utilizing the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computer task that requires participants to sort positive affect words and negative affect words in tandem with one image set vs another (Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz, 1998). Exposure to certain positive exemplars can decrease negative attitudes towards certain people groups (Kashihara and Sakomoto, 2018). [JH1] The goal of the current research was to evaluate underlying biases towards Deaf individuals, a potentially invisible disability. To this end, we developed an Implicit Association Test using images of Deaf individuals with visible hearing devices (cochlear implants or external hearing aids). Prior to taking the IAT test, participants were randomly assigned an exemplar condition to determine if reading a positive exemplar before taking the IAT would reduce biases towards those with visible hearing devices.
[JH1]Instead of this chunk, take this out and replace it with a sentence/lit review talking about how peoples implicit attitudes can be affected by exposure to positive exemplars. Our study wasn’t really about visibility vs invisibility of deafness, it was more “can we manipulate a persons implicit attitudes with an exemplar”
Keywords
implicit attitudes, exemplars, deaf
Start Date
10-4-2026 9:30 AM
Location
University Readiness Center Greatroom
End Date
10-4-2026 11:30 AM
SS78 - Positive Exemplars and Implicit Attitudes Towards Deaf People
University Readiness Center Greatroom
People readily form attitudes towards the various ideas, things, and people they encounter. Some attitudes can be measured directly, but other attitudes make more sense to measure at the implicit level. These implicit attitudes people hold can bias the way we think and feel about people, even outside of conscious control. A growing area of research deals with how these implicit attitudes can influence how people react to people with disabilities (Carvalho-Freitas and Stathi, 2016). One way to evaluate people’s attitudes is by utilizing the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computer task that requires participants to sort positive affect words and negative affect words in tandem with one image set vs another (Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz, 1998). Exposure to certain positive exemplars can decrease negative attitudes towards certain people groups (Kashihara and Sakomoto, 2018). The goal of the current research was to evaluate underlying biases towards Deaf individuals, a potentially invisible disability. To this end, we developed an Implicit Association Test using images of Deaf individuals with visible hearing devices (cochlear implants or external hearing aids). Prior to taking the IAT test, participants were randomly assigned an exemplar condition to determine if reading a positive exemplar before taking the IAT would reduce biases towards those with visible hearing devices.
People readily form attitudes towards the various ideas, things, and people they encounter. Some attitudes can be measured directly, but other attitudes make more sense to measure at the implicit level. These implicit attitudes people hold can bias the way we think and feel about people, even outside of conscious control. A growing area of research deals with how these implicit attitudes can influence how people react to people with disabilities (Carvalho-Freitas and Stathi, 2016). One way to evaluate people’s attitudes is by utilizing the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computer task that requires participants to sort positive affect words and negative affect words in tandem with one image set vs another (Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz, 1998). Exposure to certain positive exemplars can decrease negative attitudes towards certain people groups (Kashihara and Sakomoto, 2018). [JH1] The goal of the current research was to evaluate underlying biases towards Deaf individuals, a potentially invisible disability. To this end, we developed an Implicit Association Test using images of Deaf individuals with visible hearing devices (cochlear implants or external hearing aids). Prior to taking the IAT test, participants were randomly assigned an exemplar condition to determine if reading a positive exemplar before taking the IAT would reduce biases towards those with visible hearing devices.
[JH1]Instead of this chunk, take this out and replace it with a sentence/lit review talking about how peoples implicit attitudes can be affected by exposure to positive exemplars. Our study wasn’t really about visibility vs invisibility of deafness, it was more “can we manipulate a persons implicit attitudes with an exemplar”