Working Paper: NBER ID: w20885
Authors: Sara Lowes; Nathan Nunn; James A. Robinson; Jonathan Weigel
Abstract: We use a variant of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to examine individuals’ implicit attitudes towards various ethnic groups. Using a population from the Democratic Republic of Congo, we find that the IAT measures show evidence of an implicit bias in favor of one’s own ethnicity. Individuals have implicit views of their own ethnic group that are more positive than their implicit views of other ethnic groups. We find this implicit bias to be quantitatively smaller than the (explicit) bias one finds when using self-reported attitudes about different ethnic groups.
Keywords: Ethnic Identity; Implicit Association Test; Bias; Democratic Republic of Congo
JEL Codes: O10; O55
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Implicit attitudes (IAT d-score) (D91) | Explicit attitudes (self-reported) (C91) |
| Self-reported attitudes (D91) | Implicit attitudes (IAT d-score) (D91) |
| Enumerator ethnicity (J15) | Self-reported attitudes (D91) |
| Enumerator ethnicity (J15) | Implicit attitudes (IAT d-score) (D91) |