Assessing Implicit and Explicit Attitudes about Classism

ABSTRACT

Extensive research demonstrates that corresponding implicit and explicit attitudes are less similar when examined socially sensitive topics. However, little research has examined attitudes towards people living in poverty, a marginalized and growing portion of people in the United States. We developed a Classism Implicit Association Test (IAT-C) and compared implicit associations with explicit attitudes about attribution for poverty. Using a sample of 280 undergraduate participants, we found a significant, but weak positive correlation between implicit and explicit attitudes (r = .16). We also found a significant difference between implicit and explicit attitudes based on participants’ objective and perceived social class.

KEYWORDS:

• Classism
• Implicit Association Test
• bias

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Unlike Rudman and colleagues study (2002), we decided to use “people in the middle class” as a comparison group for “people living in poverty,” instead of “people who are rich.” We felt that attitudes towards “the rich” are more complex, and might confound our results (e.g., Wyatt-Nichol & Seabrook, 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spencer Foundation [201500054].