Why Is Murat's Achievement So Low? Causal Attributions and Implicit Attitudes Toward Ethnic Minority Students Predict Preservice Teachers' Judgments About Achievement.

In many educational systems, ethnic minority students score lower in their academic achievement, and consequently, teachers develop low expectations regarding this student group. Relatedly, teachers' implicit attitudes, explicit expectations, and causal attributions also differ between ethnic minority and ethnic majority students-all in a disadvantageous way for ethnic minority students. However, what is not known so far, is how attitudes and causal attributions contribute together to teachers' judgments. In the current study, we explored how implicit attitudes and causal attributions contribute to preservice teachers' judgments of the low educational success of an ethnic minority student. Results showed that both implicit attitudes and causal attributions predicted language proficiency and intelligence judgments. Negative implicit attitudes, assessed with the IRAP, and internal stable causal attributions led to lower judgments of language proficiency, whereas lower judgments of intelligence were predicted by positive implicit attitudes and higher judgments of intelligence by external stable attributions. Substantial differences in the prediction of judgments could be found between the IRAP and BIAT as measures of implicit attitudes.

What's in a diagnosis: The effect of externalizing and internalizing students' behaviour on pre-service teachers' classroom management and interaction strategies.

BACKGROUND: All over the word, classrooms are getting more and more diverse and teachers are required to effectively manage these classes even when students have special education needs (SEN). AIMS: The study aimed to investigate classroom management strategies and interpersonal teacher behaviour in relation to students internalizing and externalizing behaviour, whereby we varied the diagnosis of special educational needs. SAMPLE: Two hundred and fifty-four German pre-service teachers (143 female) with a mean age of 26.04 years participated in the study. METHOD: Using an experimental between-subjects design, a fictitious student was described as exhibiting either internalizing or externalizing behaviour. Additionally, we varied whether the student was diagnosed as having SEN or not. The participants were asked to indicate which strategies they would apply and how they would interact with students. RESULTS: Results showed that teacher interaction in response to both students with internalizing and externalizing behaviour approached ideal interpersonal teacher behaviour (i.e. high level of cooperativeness with certain level of dominance), whereas pre-service teachers applied all classroom management strategies to minimize effects of student behaviour on learning time. Although pre-service teachers adapted their responses based on type of behaviour, they only made allowances for internalizing behaviour while their response to externalizing behaviour did not vary much as a function of a SEN diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these findings highlight the importance of providing pre-service teachers with the pedagogical knowledge concerning effective classroom management and flexible use of strategies in response to diverse student needs in inclusive classrooms.

Teachers' Implicit Attitudes Toward Students From Different Social Groups: A Meta-Analysis.

Teachers' attitudes toward their students have been associated with differential teachers' expectations and, in turn, with students' educational pathways. Theories of social cognition can explain the link between attitudes and behavior. In this regard, the distinction between implicit and explicit attitudes is worth to be considered, whereby implicit attitudes are automatically activated when the attitude object is present and guide automatic behavior. In contrast, explicit attitudes infer deliberation and reflection, hence affecting controlled behavior. As teachers often are required to act immediately in situations that do not allow for thoughtful reflection due to time restraints, teachers' implicit attitudes concerning different student groups with shared characteristics, such as gender or ethnicity, may be especially important when considering teachers' behavior in relation to students' educational pathways. This notion is reflected by an increased interest in adopting implicit methodology in the educational domain. Over the last 10 years, several studies have been conducted in different countries, involving in- and pre-service teachers and investigating their attitudes toward different student groups. Estimates of effects have varied and may be affected by sampling bias. To systematically review and integrate data from different studies, this meta-analysis focuses on teachers' implicit attitudes. Following the systematic search of the database and initial screening, 43 articles were identified from which 22, describing 34 studies, were retained for the meta-analysis after further inspection. First analyses revealed an estimated average effect size of 0.56 for implicit attitudes in favor of non-marginalized groups. As there was a large extent of heterogeneity between studies, several moderator variables were investigated. Results showed that the employed implicit measure and stimulus materials as well as the student target group affected the effect sizes. Low or non-significant relationships were reported between implicit and explicit attitudes. Findings are discussed in terms of theory and future research.

Teachers' attitudes towards ethnic minority students: Effects of schools' cultural diversity.

BACKGROUND: Research exploring mechanisms driving inequalities in school systems has found that biased teacher judgements contribute to observed disadvantages for ethnic minority students. Teacher judgements may be driven by explicit and implicit attitudes. AIMS: The current research explored the effect of cultural diversity at schools (actual or imagined) on teachers' attitudes towards ethnic minority students. SAMPLES: One hundred and five preservice teachers (90 female) with a mean age of 26.20 years (teaching experience: 57.55 weeks) participated in Study 1. Two hundred and thirty-one teachers (159 female) with a mean age of 41.00 years (teaching experience: 12.92 years) participated in Study 2. METHOD: Cultural diversity was operationalized via a fictive description of a school (Study 1) or via the actual proportion of ethnic minority students at the school (Study 2). An Implicit Association Test assessed implicit attitudes towards ethnic minority students. Explicit attitudes were assessed via questionnaire. RESULTS: Preservice teachers imagining a more culturally diverse school held more negative implicit attitudes towards ethnic minority students than those imagining a less diverse school. In contrast, in-service teachers actually working in more diverse schools held less negative implicit attitudes towards minority students. Preservice teachers associated teaching in culturally diverse schools with increased effort, whereas in-service teachers actually working in culturally diverse schools reported more enthusiasm towards teaching ethnic minority students. CONCLUSIONS: This research shows the challenge and the negative stereotypes preservice teachers associate with culturally diverse schools, while in-service teachers' negative associations may be buffered by the actual experience of working with ethnic minority students.

Smoking-related warning messages formulated as questions positively influence short-term smoking behaviour.

Research demonstrated that by reformulating smoking warnings into questions, defensive responses in smokers are reduced and smoking-related risk perception increases. We explored whether these positive outcomes can be generalised to actual behaviour. Participants saw either a movie presenting subheadings with smoking-related questions or statements. Afterwards, the time was measured until participants lit their first cigarette. Smokers who were presented with questions about the harms of smoking waited longer before lighting up a cigarette than smokers who were presented with statements. Presenting questions instead of the statements seems to be an effective means to prolonging smokers' abstinence.

Promoting responsible drinking? A mass media campaign affects implicit but not explicit alcohol-related cognitions and attitudes.

OBJECTIVES: Rigorous tests are not usually applied to determine whether mass media campaigns that promote responsible drinking are useful, that is whether they lead to responsible drinking or not. In two experiments, we investigated the effectiveness of a mass media campaign that runs in Germany since 2009. This campaign used posters, which emphasized negative alcohol-related outcome expectancies and challenged the positive expectancies. Based on models of alcohol use, we investigated the influence of the campaign on alcohol-related outcome expectancies, implicit and explicit attitudes, and drinking intentions. DESIGN: In Experiment 1, we investigated alcohol-related outcome expectancies via ratings and response latencies among 81 young adult light drinkers. Employing an affective priming task, Experiment 2 was designed to assess implicit attitudes before and after mass media campaign exposure among 83 young adult light drinkers. In both experiments, the effects of the posters were investigated before and after poster exposure as well as compared to a control group. RESULTS: Experiment 1 revealed that the campaign affected only the implicit associations of young adult drinkers, whereas explicit outcome expectancies remained unaffected. Experiment 2 showed that implicit attitudes towards alcohol were turned into more negative ones, but explicit attitudes as well as drinking intentions were not influenced. CONCLUSIONS: The mass media campaign was deemed effective even though its influence occurred on an implicit level. This research highlights the need for experimental investigations of mass media campaigns. Reasons that the findings were obtained on an implicit but not on an explicit level are discussed.

Implicit attitudes toward smoking: how the smell of cigarettes influences responses of college-age smokers and nonsmokers.

The habit of smoking may have automatic behavioral components guided by implicit attitudes. Smokers' attitudes toward smoking should thus be less negative than nonsmokers', so that a salient smoking cue (smell) is able to activate positive aspects of these attitudes. An affective priming task was used to explore this hypothesis. Unexpectedly, smokers and nonsmokers showed equally negative implicit attitudes, irrespective of smell. Smokers exposed to the cigarette smell did, however, display generally slower responses than nonsmokers, suggesting attentional bias. This could have implications for smoking policies in contexts where attentional factors affect performance.

Changing outcome expectancies, drinking intentions, and implicit attitudes toward alcohol: a comparison of positive expectancy-related and health-related alcohol warning labels.

BACKGROUND: Although alcohol consumption is a leading risk factor for major illnesses, warning labels are still not being used. Alcohol consumption is related to positive and negative outcome expectancies, which both play a crucial role. This study compared the effectiveness of warning labels that contradicted positive outcome expectancies with health-related warning labels among a college-aged German sample (N = 40). METHOD: Half of the participants received health-related warning labels while half received positive-related warning labels. Implicit attitudes were assessed before and after warning-label exposure. Explicit attitudes and outcome expectancies were assessed after exposure. Participants' usual drinking behavior was assessed before exposure to warning labels, and their drinking intentions were measured afterwards. RESULTS: Participants exposed to positive-related warning labels had marginally more negative implicit attitudes compared to their own prior attitudes. They tended to perceive lower social and higher negative outcome expectancies than the health-related warning labels group. Importantly, the positive-related warning labels group's drinking intentions tended to be lower than those of the health-related warning labels group. CONCLUSIONS: This first test of warning labels that contradict positive alcohol outcome expectancies provided promising results; thus warning labels could be considered as means to influence college-aged people.

Effects of and attention to graphic warning labels on cigarette packages.

OBJECTIVE: The present study investigates the effects of graphic cigarette warnings compared to text-only cigarette warnings on smokers' explicit (i.e. ratings of the packages, cognitions about smoking, perceived health risk, quit intentions) and implicit attitudes. In addition, participants' visual attention towards the graphic warnings was recorded using eye-tracking methodology. DESIGN AND METHODS: Sixty-three smokers participated in the present study and either viewed graphic cigarette warnings with aversive and non-aversive images or text-only warnings. Data were analysed using analysis of variance and correlation analysis. RESULTS: Especially, graphic cigarette warnings with aversive content drew attention and elicited high threat. However, whereas attention directed to the textual information of the graphic warnings predicted smokers' risk perceptions, attention directed to the images of the graphic warnings did not. Moreover, smokers' in the graphic warning condition reported more positive cognitions about smoking, thus revealing cognitive dissonance. CONCLUSION: Smokers employ defensive psychological mechanisms when confronted with threatening warnings. Although aversive images attract attention, they do not promote health knowledge. Implications for graphic health warnings and the importance of taking their content (i.e. aversive vs. non-aversive images) into account are discussed.

Implicit associations and compensatory health beliefs in smokers: exploring their role for behaviour and their change through warning labels.

OBJECTIVES: Smokers might think that the negative effects of smoking can be compensated for by other behaviours, such as doing exercise or eating healthily. This phenomenon is known as compensatory health beliefs (CHBs). Graphic warning labels on cigarette packets emphasize the negative effects of smoking, which may impact CHBs. Research so far has assessed CHBs explicitly only via questionnaires, although implicit cognition might be an important factor in continuing to smoke. This study investigated the impact of graphic warning labels on CHBs, by testing CHBs both implicitly and explicitly. DESIGN: The study had a three-group experimental design. ANOVAs and multiple regression analyses were run on the results. METHODS: We assessed explicit CHBs among non-smokers, smokers, and smokers confronted with graphic warning labels (N = 107; 47 females, 23.89 years old, 78 daily smokers). Implicit associations between smoking and CHB-specific behaviours (e.g., eating healthy food) were measured using a Single-Target Implicit Association Test. After the experiment, participants were able to choose between a healthy and unhealthy food reward. RESULTS: Non-smokers and smokers differed in explicit CHBs but not in implicit cognitions. Warning labels influenced implicit associations among smokers but did not affect explicit CHBs. Most interestingly, implicit associations and explicit CHBs predicted food choice and smoking among smokers not confronted with warning labels. CONCLUSIONS: Graphic warning labels could be used in interventions to inhibit automatic associations between smoking and healthy behaviours. Unlearning implicit cognitions might in turn affect explicit CHBs, thus decreasing their role in reducing the negative feelings caused by smoking.

Warning labels formulated as questions positively influence smoking-related risk perception.

Research on warning labels printed on cigarette packages has shown that fear inducing health warnings might provoke defensive responses. This study investigated whether reformulating statements into questions could avoid defensive reactions. Smokers were presented with either warning labels formulated as questions, textual warning labels, graphic warning labels, or no warning labels. Participants' smoking-related risk perception was higher after exposure to warning labels formulated as questions or no warning labels than after exposure to textual or graphic warning labels. These results indicate that reformulating statements into questions can avoid defensive responses elicited by textual- and graphic warning labels.

Are digital games perceived as fun or danger? Supporting and suppressing different game-related concepts.

Violent digital game play has repeatedly been discussed to be strongly related to aggression and emotional instability. Thus, digital game players have to defend against these prejudices through emphasizing positive game-related concepts such as achievement, social interaction, and immersion. We experimentally investigated which positive- and negative-concept players and nonplayers activate when being primed with digital games. Participants were either exposed to violent or nonviolent game content and were required to work on a lexical decision task. Results showed that response latencies for the concept aggression and emotional instability were faster than for neutral concepts (not associated with digital games), but slower than for the positive concepts sociality and competition. Both players and nonplayers felt the need to defend against prejudices and emphasized positive concepts. Neither their own gaming experience nor the game content influenced the results. Being a part of the net generation is sufficient to suppress negative game-related concepts and to support positive game-related concepts to protect digital games as common leisure activity among peers.

Defending the doomed: implicit strategies concerning protection of first-person shooter games.

Censorship of violent digital games, especially first-person shooter (FPS) games, is broadly discussed between generations. While older people are concerned about possible negative influences of these games, not only players but also nonplayers of the younger net-generation seem to deny any association with real aggressive behavior. Our study aimed at investigating defense mechanisms players and nonplayers use to defend FPS and peers with playing habits. By using a lexical decision task, we found that aggressive concepts are activated by priming the content of FPS but suppressed afterward. Only if participants were instructed to actively suppress aggressive concepts after priming, thought suppression was no longer necessary. Young people still do have negative associations with violent video games. These associations are neglected by implicitly applying defense strategies--independent of own playing habits--to protect this specific hobby, which is common for the net-generation.

Beyond fear appeals: contradicting positive smoking outcome expectancies to influence smokers' implicit attitudes, perception, and behavior.

Smokers often have (implicit or explicit) positive smoking outcome expectancies that motivate them to smoke. For instance, they may feel that smoking is relaxing, that it improves concentration, or that it is seen as cool and attractive by peers. These expectations are, for the most part, illusory. In order to counteract these expectations, we designed cigarette package warning labels that contradicted common positive outcome expectancies. We investigated the effectiveness of our new warning labels in two experiments. We first measured smokers' implicit attitudes toward smoking using an affective priming method and found that our new warning labels changed positive attitudes into ambivalent attitudes. We then tested whether our warning labels changed smokers' self-reported positive outcome expectancies and smoking behavior. Smokers presented with the new warning labels immediately associated positive outcome expectancies less strongly with smoking and reported smoking fewer cigarettes in the 24 hours following the experiment. Explicitly taking the reasons for unhealthy behavior into account when trying to change people's habits could offer a valuable contribution to effective health campaigns.