The Merits of the Implicit Association Test for Sociological Research

• In Event: 123 - Section on Social Psychology Refereed Roundtable Session (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions and Section on Sociology of Mental Health).
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 10. Methodological and Theoretical Advances

Abstract

Various strands of sociological theorizing bear on the social situatedness of cognitive processes and implicit associations. In this article we will argue and demonstrate that applying the Implicit Association Test (IAT), developed in the field of psychology, enables the rigorous empirical scrutiny of that notion. More specifically, it enables empirical analysis of phenomena that have thus far merely been assumed in contemporary sociological research: the existence and relevance of a stratum-specific Bourdieusian habitus, and the relational nature of identity formation. Applying the IAT in sociological research has two additional advantages: circumventing social desirability in standard survey questions, and examining the construct validity of sociological concepts. In addition to elaborating these merits of the IAT in empirical-sociological research, we provide a technical discussion of the method, and practical suggestions for its application in the field of sociology.

Authors

• Julian Schaap, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Jeroen van der Waal, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Willem De Koster, Erasmus University Rotterdam