Less biased yet more defensive: The impact of control processes.

Educational and training programs designed to reduce racial bias often focus on increasing people's awareness of psychological sources of their biases. However, when people learn about their biases, they often respond defensively, which can undermine the effectiveness of antibias interventions and the success of prejudice regulation. Using process (Quad) modeling, we provide one of the first investigations of the relationships between (a) controlled and automatic cognitive processes that underpin performance on the Implicit Association Test and (b) defensive reactions to unflattering implicit racial bias feedback. In two correlational samples (one preregistered; N = 8,000) and one experiment in which the provision of bias feedback was manipulated (N = 547), we find racially biased associations and some control over these associations among White people. Nonetheless, more defensiveness to bias feedback consistently predicted weaker ability to control biased associations. We also find correlational evidence that lower levels of biased associations predict more defensiveness, but did not replicate this observation in the experimental study. These results are critical for theories of implicit attitudes, models of prejudice regulation, and strategies for antibias interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting suicidal ideation in psychiatrically hospitalized veterans using the death/suicide Implicit Association Test: A prospective cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: We investigated whether the Death/Suicide Implicit Association Test (D/S-IAT) predicted suicidal ideation (SI) in psychiatric inpatients. METHODS: One hundred eighty veterans admitted for either SI or suicidal behavior (SB) (the primary sample) (N = 90) or alcohol detoxification (N = 90) completed the D/S-IAT and scales measuring SI. Correlation and regression coefficients were measured between the D/S-IAT (as a full-scale or dichotomized score [D > 0]) and self-reported current or imminent SI (over the next 1-3 days). RESULTS: In the primary sample, the full-scale D/S-IAT was significantly correlated with the intensity of current SI (r = 0.22, p = 0.04) and especially with wishes to be dead (r = 0.35, p < 0.001). The intensity of imminent SI was significantly predicted by the full-scale (p = 0.02) and dichotomized D/S-IAT score (p = 0.05) in a multiple regression model. However, no significant associations were observed when both the D/S-IAT score and current (present/absent) or imminent SI (occurred/did not occur) were dichotomous measures. In participants receiving alcohol detoxification, the D/S-IAT significantly predicted only wishes to be dead (r = 0.33, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The full-scale D/S-IAT score predicted the current intensity of wishes to be dead in both inpatient samples, and current and imminent SI in participants admitted for SI/SB. The dichotomized D/S-IAT score did not predict the simple occurrence of SI.

Suicidality and mood: the impact of trends, seasons, day of the week, and time of day on explicit and implicit cognitions among an online community sample.

Decades of research have established seasonality effects on completed and attempted suicides, with rates increasing in spring. Little advancements have been made to explain this phenomenon, with most studies focusing almost exclusively on the number of suicide attempts and deaths. Using more than six years of data collected among a US, UK, and Canadian online community sample (N > 10,000), we used newly developed Prophet forecasting and autoregressive-integrated moving average time-series models to examine the temporal dynamics of explicit and implicit self-harm cognitions. We created three groups (past suicide attempters; suicide ideation and/or non-suicidal self-injury; no previous self-harm, suicidal thoughts, or behaviors). We found a general increase of negative self-harm cognitions across the six years and seasonality effects for mood and desire to die, particularly among those who previously made a suicide attempt. Negative explicit self-harm cognitions peaked in winter (December), with implicit self-harm showing a lagged peak of two months (February). Moreover, daily negative self-harm cognitions consistently peaked around 4-5 am, with implicit cognitions again showing a lagged effect (1-hour). Limitations include the volunteer sample not being representative and the cross-sectional nature of the data being unable to separate between-subject and within-subject structural trends in the time series. Our findings show that negative explicit and implicit cognitions precede the rise in suicidal behaviors in spring. We proposed a conceptual model of seasonal suicide risk that may offer fertile ground for theoretical advancements, including implications for clinical risk assessment and public policies regarding the availability of health services.

Implicit and explicit COVID-19 associations and mental health in the United States: a large-scale examination and replication.

BACKGROUND: Given the sensitive nature of COVID-19 beliefs, evaluating them explicitly and implicitly may provide a fuller picture of how these beliefs vary based on identities and how they relate to mental health. OBJECTIVE: Three novel brief implicit association tests (BIATs) were created and evaluated: two that measured COVID-19-as-dangerous (vs. safe) and one that measured COVID-19 precautions-as-necessary (vs. unnecessary). Implicit and explicit COVID-19 associations were examined based on individuals' demographic characteristics. Implicit associations were hypothesized to uniquely contribute to individuals' self-reports of mental health. METHODS: Participants (N = 13,413 US residents; April-November 2020) were volunteers for a COVID-19 study. Participants completed one BIAT and self-report measures. This was a preregistered study with a planned internal replication. RESULTS: Results revealed older age was weakly associated with stronger implicit and explicit associations of COVID-as-dangerous and precautions-as-necessary. Black and Asian individuals reported greater necessity of taking precautions than White individuals (with small-to-medium effects); greater education was associated with greater explicit reports of COVID-19-as-dangerous and precautions-as-necessary with small effects. Replicated relationships between COVID-as-dangerous explicit associations and mental health had very small effects. CONCLUSIONS: Implicit associations did not predict mental health but there was evidence that stronger COVID-19-as-dangerous explicit associations are weakly associated with worse mental health.

The role of uncertainty, worry, and control in well-being: Evidence from the COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic in U.S. and China.

Uncertainty about the future often leads to worries about what the future will bring, which can have negative consequences for health and well-being. However, if worry can act as a motivator to promote efforts to prevent undesirable future outcomes, those negative consequences of worry may be mitigated. In this article, we apply a novel model of uncertainty, worry, and perceived control to predict psychological and physical well-being among four samples collected in China (Study 1; during the early COVID-19 outbreak in China) and the United States (Studies 2-4, during 4 weeks in May 2020, 4 weeks in November 2020, and cross-sectionally between April and November 2020). Grounded in the feeling-is-for-doing approach to emotions, we hypothesized (and found) that uncertainty about one's COVID-19 risk would predict greater worry about the virus and one's risk of contracting it, and that greater worry would in turn predict poorer well-being. We also hypothesized, and found somewhat mixed evidence, that perceptions of control over 1's COVID-19 risk moderated the relationship between worry and well-being such that worry was related to diminished well-being when people felt they lacked control over their risk for contracting the virus. This study is one of the first to demonstrate an indirect path from uncertainty to well-being via worry and to demonstrate the role of control in moderating whether uncertainty and worry manifest in poor well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Exposure and Aversion to Human Transmissible Diseases Predict Conservative Ideological and Partisan Preferences.

The objective prevalence of and subjective vulnerability to infectious diseases are associated with greater ingroup preference, conformity, and traditionalism. However, evidence directly testing the link between infectious diseases and political ideology and partisanship is lacking. Across four studies, including a large sample representative of the U.S. population (N > 12,000), we demonstrate that higher environmental levels of human transmissible diseases and avoidance of germs from human carriers predict conservative ideological and partisan preferences. During the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 848), we replicated this germ aversion finding and determined that these conservative preferences were primarily driven by avoidance of germs from outgroups (foreigners) rather than ingroups (locals). Moreover, socially conservative individuals expressed lower concerns of being susceptible to contracting infectious diseases during the pandemic and worried less about COVID-19. These effects were robust to individual-level and state-level controls. We discuss these findings in light of theory on parasite stress and the behavioral immune system and with regard to the political implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who is more likely to ignore experts' advice related to COVID-19?

Failing to adhere to COVID-19 experts' advice could have devastating consequences for individuals and communities. Here we determine which demographic factors can impact trust in COVID-19 experts. Participants consisted of more than 1875 online volunteers, primarily from the U.S. Survey data were collected before and after the first peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. (28th of March-15th of May 2020). We consistently find that participants with a lower perceived socio-economic status, social conservatives, individualists, and participants who are less worried about COVID-19 are significantly more likely to support individuals who ignore the goverment's, scientists', medical professionals' COVID-19 advice. Regarding race, Black participants consistently (and Hispanics to a lesser degree) were more likely to support individuals who ignore the three expert groups relative to Whites. All these findings generalized to weaker trust towards public policy decision experts. Asian and other racial groups' trust was consistently lower than Whites, but primarily numerically, not statistically. Age and gender showed weak or inconsistent results respectively. We provide an enhanced understanding of the demographic factors that can result in individuals/groups ignoring COVID-19 experts. Lack of compliance could increase the transmission risks of the virus. Therefore, non-partisan campaigns that target individuals/groups who distrust COVID-19 experts will likely reduce COVID-19 related deaths. Increasing expert representatives' racial diversity may also increase trust among racial minorities.

Decomposing implicit associations about life and death improves our understanding of suicidal behavior.

The Death/Suicide Implicit Association Test (IAT) is effective at detecting and prospectively predicting suicidal thoughts and behaviors. However, traditional IAT scoring procedures used in all prior studies (i.e., D-scores) provide an aggregate score that is inherently relative, obfuscating the separate associations (i.e., "Me = Death/Suicide," "Me = Life") that might be most relevant for understanding suicide-related implicit cognition. Here, we decompose the D-scores and validate a new analytic technique called the Decomposed D-scores ("DD-scores") that creates separate scores for each category ("Me," "Not Me") in the IAT. Across large online volunteer samples (N > 12,000), results consistently showed that a weakened association between "Me = Life" is more strongly predictive of having a history of suicidal attempts than is a stronger association between "Me = Death/Suicide." These findings replicated across three different versions of the IAT and were observed when calculated using both reaction times and error rates. However, among those who previously attempted suicide, a strengthened association between "Me = Death" is more strongly predictive of the recency of a suicide attempt. These results suggest that decomposing traditional IAT D-scores can offer new insights into the mental associations that may underlie clinical phenomena and may help to improve the prediction, and ultimately the prevention, of these clinical outcomes.