Race, Gender, and the U.S. Presidency: A Comparison of Implicit and Explicit Biases in the Electorate.

Recent U.S. elections have witnessed the Democrats nominating both black and female presidential candidates, as well as a black and female vice president. The increasing diversity of the U.S. political elite heightens the importance of understanding the psychological factors influencing voter support for, or opposition to, candidates of different races and genders. In this study, we investigated the relative strength of the implicit biases for and against hypothetical presidential candidates that varied by gender and race, using an evaluative priming paradigm on a broadly representative sample of U.S. citizens (n = 1076). Our main research question is: Do measures of implicit racial and gender biases predict political attitudes and voting better than measures of explicit prejudice? We find that measures of implicit bias are less strongly associated with political attitudes and voting than are explicit measures of sexist attitudes and modern racism. Moreover, once demographic characteristics and explicit prejudice are controlled statistically, measures of implicit bias provide little incremental predictive validity. Overall, explicit prejudice has a far stronger association with political preferences than does implicit bias.

Sooo Sweeet! Presence of Long Vowels in Brand Names Lead to Expectations of Sweetness.

Throughout the history of languages, poets and writers have used linguistic tools to enhance euphony in their creations. One of the widely used tools to convey melody in any written (or spoken) creative art form is the use of long vowels. This paper examines the linkages between long (vs. short) vowel sounds and taste expectations of sweetness. Across four studies, we demonstrate that people expect products with brand names containing long vowels to taste sweeter than those including short vowel sounds. In studies 1 and 2, we demonstrate this association with the use of self-reported measures, and in studies 3 and 4, we employ indirect measures (implicit taste-shape correspondence and Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) paradigm) to show the effect holds at a subconscious level of processing. Previous research in this field has typically linked vowel position (high vs. low or front vs. back) with product or brand attribute expectations. This paper contributes to the growing body of literature in this field by demonstrating the importance of vowel length in sound symbolism, and more precisely, how it pertains to the taste continuum.

Determinants of eHealth Literacy among Adults in China.

eHealth can empower patients to make informed health decisions. However, inaccurate and misleading health information is not uncommon on the Internet, which requires users' competencies to both utilize eHealth technologies and evaluate eHealth credibilities. Therefore, this study investigates the determinants of both self-efficacy in utilizing eHealth and frequency of eHealth information evaluation. An Internet-based survey of 923 Chinese adults who are residing in China aged from 21 to 55 years old was conducted. Path analysis was adopted to examine sociodemographic variables, Internet literacy, and health information evaluation as determinants of eHealth literacy variables. Findings demonstrated that Internet literacy positively predicted only self-efficacy in utilizing eHealth. In contrast, health information orientation positively predicted both self-efficacy in utilizing eHealth and frequency of eHealth information evaluation. In addition, Internet literacy and health information orientation mediated the predicted effects of sociodemographic factors on the two eHealth variables. The findings imply that Internet literacy is no longer the primary determinant of eHealth competencies for adults who are tech-savvy users. Instead, interests in health information play a crucial role in improving eHealth competencies.

IMPULSE Moment-by-Moment Test: An Implicit Measure of Affective Responses to Audiovisual Televised or Digital Advertisements.

IMPULSE is a novel method for detecting affective responses to dynamic audiovisual content. It is an implicit reaction time test that is carried out while an audiovisual clip (e.g., a television commercial) plays in the background and measures feelings that are congruent or incongruent with the content of the clip. The results of three experiments illustrate the following four advantages of IMPULSE over self-reported and biometric methods: (1) being less susceptible to typical confounds associated with explicit measures, (2) being easier to measure deep-seated and often nonconscious emotions, (3) being better able to detect a broad range of emotions and feelings, and (4) being more efficient to implement as an online method.

Providing Excellent Consumer Service Is Therapeutic: Insights from an Implicit Association Neuromarketing Study.

This paper reports the results of a combined biometric and implicit affective priming study of the emotional consequences of being the provider or receiver of either positive or negative customer service experiences. The study was conducted in two stages. Study 1 captured the moment-by-moment implicit emotional and physiological responses associated with receiving and providing good customer service. Study 2 employed an affective priming task to evaluate the implicit associations with good and poor customer service in a large sample of 1200 respondents across three Western countries. Our results show that both giving and receiving good customer service was perceived as pleasurable (Study 1) and at the same time, was implicitly associated with positive feelings (Study 2). The authors discuss the implications of the research for service providers in terms of the impact of these interactions on employee wellbeing, staff retention rates and customer satisfaction.