Measuring implicit attitudes : a positive framing bias flaw in the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP)

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP), unlike the Implicit Association Test (IAT), claims to measure absolute, not just relative, implicit attitudes. In the IRAP, participants make congruent (Fat Person-Active: False; Fat Person-Unhealthy: True) or incongruent (Fat Person-Active: True; Fat Person-Unhealthy: False) responses in different blocks of trials.

IRAP experiments have reported positive or neutral implicit attitudes (e.g., neutral attitudes towards fat people) in cases where negative attitudes are normally found on explicit or other implicit measures. It was hypothesized that these results might reflect a Positive Framing Bias (PFB) that occurs when participants complete the IRAP. Implicit attitudes towards categories with varying prior associations (nonwords, social systems, flowers and insects, thin and fat people) were measured.