Thierry Devos

Against the backdrop of increasing ethnic diversity in the U.S., we replicate, extend, and challenge previous examinations of the American = White/Foreign = Asian stereotype in the largest sample to date (N = 666,623 respondents) over 17 years (2007–2023). Six key findings emerged. First, a robust American = White association emerged on implicit (Cohen’s d = 0.50) and explicit (Cohen’s d = 0.51) measures. Second, the strength of this effect varied by respondents’ race/ethnicity with implicit stereotypes strongest among White respondents (Cohen’s d = 0.86) and absent among East Asian respondents (Cohen’s d = 0.02). Third, the strength of implicit stereotypes was modulated by age, religion, and ideology—older, Christian, and conservative respondents displayed stronger implicit American = White associations—but not gender or education. Fourth, respondents living in U.S. metropolitan areas with greater Asian representation or a history of voting for Democratic candidates exhibited weaker implicit American = White associations. Fifth, over the past 17 years, implicit and explicit American = White associations decreased by 41% and 47%, respectively, and 14/14 demographic subgroups changed towards neutrality. Finally, we observed suggestive evidence that implicit stereotype trends towards neutrality were temporarily disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic for White Americans but not Asian Americans.

In the context of recent policies aimed at deterring immigration and criminalizing undocumented Latino immigrants, we examined factors predicting implicit and explicit attitudes toward this population. We hypothesized that more positive implicit and explicit attitudes toward undocumented Latino immigrants would be displayed by Latinxs (compared to non-Hispanic Whites) and by individuals having personal connections to undocumented immigrants or a high level of intercultural sensitivity. Latinx (n = 376) and non-Hispanic White (n = 214) college students (70% female, Mage = 21) participated in this cross-sectional study and completed two Implicit Association Tests and measures of explicit attitudes, personal connections, and intercultural sensitivity. As predicted, Latinx participants held more positive implicit and explicit attitudes than non-Hispanic White participants. Intercultural sensitivity and personal connections to undocumented immigrants were associated with more positive explicit attitudes. Identifying factors that increase a sense of commonality and cultural sensitivity with undocumented Latino immigrants may be helpful in diminishing the profiling and criminalization of this community. Public Significance Statement Latinx and non-Hispanic White college students have distinct experiences and social connections to immigrants that account for their attitudes toward undocumented Latino immigrants. Results suggest that personal connections with undocumented immigrants and openness to interacting with individuals from distinct cultures in a respectful manner were related to more positive attitudes toward undocumented Latino immigrants. These factors may be important in reducing hostility toward undocumented immigrants of Latinx origin.

Published studies point to heterogeneity in the relations between context diversity and implicit associations. To rule out methodological variations as an explanation, the relations between three dimensions of context diversity and four implicit associations were examined across 747 counties and 341 metropolitan areas, keeping constant as many factors as possible. Black people were evaluated more positively and were less associated with weapons in contexts with higher variety or higher integration combined with lower minority representation. Asian and Native Americans were more strongly associated with the American identity in contexts with higher minority representation and higher variety. These effects were largely consistent across context type, were seldom moderated by participant ethnicity, and held when controlling context-level education, median income, economic inequalities, proportion of U.S. citizens, and population density. The specificity of context diversity to implicit association relations is not attributable to methodological variations. Possible mechanisms underlying these effects are discussed.

A repeated cross‐sectional design was used to examine whether temporal changes in implicit Black‐weapon associations were dependent on the changing ethnic diversity of metropolitan areas over the course of a decade (2009–2018). Data on implicit Black‐weapon associations were obtained from Project Implicit. Three indicators of ethnic diversity were calculated using American Community Survey data. Minority representation referred to the proportion of African American residents. Variety was operationalized as the degree to which six ethnic groups each accounted for an equal proportion of the population. Integration assessed the degree to which ethnic groups were evenly distributed across census tracts making up the metropolitan area. Multilevel model analyses (N = 345,647 participants, nested within 185 metropolitan areas) revealed that implicit Black‐weapon associations weakened over time, and to a larger degree in metropolitan areas characterized by steeper increases in variety. This longitudinal relationship is consistent with the notion that, as metropolitan areas become more multiethnic, implicit associations between crime, danger, or violence and Black Americans decline.

This meta-analysis evaluated theoretical predictions from balanced identity theory (BIT) and evaluated the validity of zero points of Implicit Association Test (IAT) and self-report measures used to test these predictions. Twenty-one researchers contributed individual subject data from 36 experiments (total N = 12,773) that used both explicit and implicit measures of the social–cognitive constructs. The meta-analysis confirmed predictions of BIT’s balance–congruity principle and simultaneously validated interpretation of the IAT’s zero point as indicating absence of preference between two attitude objects. Statistical power afforded by the sample size enabled the first confirmations of balance–congruity predictions with self-report measures. Beyond these empirical results, the meta-analysis introduced a within-study statistical test of the balance–congruity principle, finding that it had greater efficiency than the previous best method. The meta-analysis’s full data set has been publicly archived to enable further studies of interrelations among attitudes, stereotypes, and identities.

The present research examined whether temporal fluctuations in context ethnic diversity account for current levels of implicit ethnic-American associations. Temporal fluctuations in ethnic diversity at the metropolitan level were assessed using data from four decennial U.S. censuses (1980–2010) and distinguishing three dimensions of context ethnic diversity (minority representation, variety, and integration). Project Implicit data (2011–2017) indexed the extent to which American identity was implicitly associated with European Americans over Asian Americans (i.e., American = White associations). Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling (N = 152,011, nested within 226 metropolitan areas). Steeper increases in the proportion of Asian Americans were related to weaker implicit (but stronger explicit) American = White associations. Increases in ethnic integration accounted for stronger implicit American = White associations when integration fluctuations reflected accelerating rather than decelerating trends. These results suggest that current levels of implicit ethnic-national associations are linked to complex patterns of ethnic diversity fluctuations.

The goal of the present research was to document ingroup prototypicality effects in implicit associations between ethnic groups and the American identity. Across four studies, we compared implicit associations displayed by perceivers who either belonged to or did not belong to the target ethnic groups. In Studies 1 and 2, African, Asian, Latino, and European American participants were randomly assigned to complete an Implicit Association Test contrasting either their ingroup and an outgroup or two outgroups (third‐party perspective). Data yielded evidence for ingroup prototypicality effects in all interethnic comparisons. Studies 3 and 4 used large datasets available through Project Implicit. We examined whether ingroup prototypicality effects were restricted to U.S. residents or generalized to participants living in other regions of the world. Results showed that ingroup prototypicality effects did not presuppose immersion in the U.S. context, but at the same time patterns of implicit associations varied according to region of residence. Implicit ethnic‐American associations are at least partially the reflection of the perceivers’ positioning in interethnic comparisons.