Implicit and Explicit Attitudes and Interracial Interaction: The Moderating Role of Situationally Available Control Resources

Wilhelm Hofmann (1) , Tobias Gschwendner (2) , Luigi Castelli (3) , Manfred Schmitt (2)

1 JMU - Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
2 University of Koblenz-Landau
3 Medical and Surgical Sciences

The present research examined whether implicit and explicit racial attitudes predict interracial interaction behavior differently as a function of situationally available control resources. Specifically, we investigated how implicit attitudes (Implicit Association Test) and explicit attitudes (Blatant/Subtle prejudice) were related to interracial interaction behaviors of Italians toward an African interviewer (Study 1) and of Germans toward a Turkish interviewer (Study 2). For half of the interview questions, participants' control resources were reduced via a memory task. Across both studies, the Race IAT was more predictive of behavior when participants were taxed than when untaxed. Conversely, explicit attitudes were somewhat more predictive under full resources. Taken together, our findings suggest that available control resources moderate the predictive validity of implicit and explicit attitudes.

Mots clés: control resources; implicit and explicit attitudes; intergroup behavior; interracial interaction

Wilhelm Hofmann, Tobias Gschwendner, Luigi Castelli, Manfred Schmitt. Implicit and Explicit Attitudes and Interracial Interaction: The Moderating Role of Situationally Available Control Resources. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 2008, 11 (1), pp.69-87. ⟨10.1177/1368430207084847⟩. ⟨hal-00571677⟩