Race and Weapons: An IAT Experiment

Race and Weapons: An IAT Experiment Julianne Dietz, James Gentry, Erin Huntington, and Karin Schubert

Literary Review • (Smith-McLallen, Johnson, Dovidio, & Pearson, 2006) • Positive associations to the color white, while negative associations to the color black • Previous IAT: White names/faces with positive words, Black names/faces with negative words, paired faster

Research Question • Will this trend continue when harmless objects are used as positive things and weapons are used as negative things? • It is hypothesized that participants’ reaction time will be faster when responding to African American faces paired with weapons and Caucasian faces paired with objects.

Method • N = 20 • 11 female • Ages 19-22 • Online study through John Krantz’s “Cognition Laboratory Experiments” • Stimulus • Two sets of images: harmless objects and weapons, African American and Caucasian faces

Procedure • Students agreed to participate in study • Completed 5 conditions of study • Testing conditions were randomly assigned

Results • Main effect for race • African American weapons, Caucasian weapons • Main effect for thing • African American weapons, African American objects

Dependent t-tests t(20) = 6.083, p < .001

Discussion • Hypothesis was supported • African American weapons and Caucasian objects had faster reaction times • Similar to results from previous research • (Smith-McLallen, Johnson, Dovidio, & Pearson, 2006)

Limitations • Lack of diversity in sample of participants • Future direction • Run study at a larger university with more diverse sample • Possibly test only African American participants • Greater age variation

Race and Weapons: An IAT Experiment