ON THE NATURE OF PREJUDICE - AUTOMATIC AND CONTROLLED PROCESSES

The present research, involving three experiments, examined the existe nce of implicit attitudes of Whites toward Blacks, investigated the re lationship between explicit measures of racial prejudice and implicit measures of racial attitudes, and explored the relationship of explici t and implicit attitudes to race-related responses and behavior. Exper iment 1, which used a priming technique, demonstrated implicit negativ e racial attitudes (i.e., evaluative associations) among Whites that w ere largely disassociated from explicit, self-reported racial prejudic e. Experiment 2 replicated the priming results of Experiment 1 and dem onstrated, as hypothesized, that explicit measures predicted deliberat ive race-related responses (juridic decisions), whereas the implicit m easure predicted spontaneous responses (racially primed word completio ns). Experiment 3 extended these findings to interracial interactions. Self-reported (explicit) racial attitudes primarily predicted the rel ative evaluations of Black and White interaction partners, whereas the response latency measure of implicit attitude primarily predicted dif ferences in nonverbal behaviors (blinking and visual contact). The rel ation between these findings and general frameworks of contemporary ra cial attitudes is considered. (C) 1997 Academic Press.