Explicit and implicit attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities: The role of contact and participant demographics
Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities
Published online on November 23, 2017
Abstract
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Background
Intellectual disability research has concentrated on self‐reported explicit attitudes with little focus on implicit attitudes. Such attitudes are evaluations which occur with or without conscious awareness, respectively. This investigation examined participants’ (N = 234) attitudes towards individuals with intellectual disabilities with reference to participants’ gender, age, level of education, frequency of contact and closeness.
Method
UK adults completed explicit (ATTID) and implicit attitude (ST‐IAT) measures, and provided demographics via an online survey.
Results
Participant demographics predicted explicit attitudes—with differing cognitive, affective and behavioural associations. Contact frequency was most significant. Implicit attitudes were not predicted, evidencing implicit–explicit attitude differences.
Conclusions
The results encourage more implicit–explicit attitude relationship research regarding disability. The associations between demographics, contact and implicit attitudes should be explored further. Research should question whether implicit attitudes reflect participants’ true beliefs—denoting less importance to demographics—or whether they reflect wider societal values rather than individuals’ attitudes.
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, Volume 31, Issue 5, Page
778-784, September 2018.