Uploaded June 2015 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The "What Makes for Effective Intergroup Bias Reduction? How to Create Change That Matters" symposium took place at SPSP's 16th Annual Convention in Long Beach, California. This presentation, by Patrick Forscher of the University of Wisconsin, is titled "A Meta-Analysis of Interventions to Change Implicit Bias."
Implicit bias has been implicated in a number of social problems, ranging from racial disparities to depression, leading to widespread calls to develop effective implicit bias interventions. However, despite two decades of effort, researchers have little knowledge of the relative effectiveness or generalizability of these interventions. To address this gap, researchers conducted a multivariate network metaanalysis of 220 randomized interventions to change implicit bias and, where available, explicit bias and behavior. Interventions that were coded into different categories based on their presumed mechanisms of change had differential effects on implicit bias. Moreover, interventions that were effective in changing implicit bias, in particular those based on the direct change of the activation of associations, were not necessarily effective in changing behavior. The results provide structure to implicit bias research and suggest that interventions that affect implicit bias will not necessarily have generalized effects on behavior in applied settings.
The "What Makes for Effective Intergroup Bias Reduction? How to Create Change That Matters" symposium took place at SPSP's 16th Annual Convention in Long Beach, California. This presentation, by Patrick Forscher of the University of Wisconsin, is titled "A Meta-Analysis of Interventions to Change Implicit Bias."
Implicit bias has been implicated in a number of social problems, ranging from racial disparities to depression, leading to widespread calls to develop effective implicit bias interventions. However, despite two decades of effort, researchers have little knowledge of the relative effectiveness or generalizability of these interventions. To address this gap, researchers conducted a multivariate network metaanalysis of 220 randomized interventions to change implicit bias and, where available, explicit bias and behavior. Interventions that were coded into different categories based on their presumed mechanisms of change had differential effects on implicit bias. Moreover, interventions that were effective in changing implicit bias, in particular those based on the direct change of the activation of associations, were not necessarily effective in changing behavior. The results provide structure to implicit bias research and suggest that interventions that affect implicit bias will not necessarily have generalized effects on behavior in applied settings.
