Attitudes of Preschool Children, Implicit Measures of

Implicit measures of attitudes provide a way to measure people's feelings about topics without asking them directly. The measures are called implicit because they tap attitudes below conscious awareness that are not accessible to purposeful introspection. Implicit measures complement explicit measures of attitudes, which involve verbal self-report, responses to questionnaires, and related direct assessments. One reason for using implicit measures with preschool-aged children is that children this young lack the verbal skills to accurately report their attitudes. Yet, they are assimilating attitudes from society that influence their current behavior and future developmental trajectories, and it is important that we measure these foundational attitudes. Another value of implicit measures is that children may suppress socially unacceptable verbalizations of negative attitudes. If you ask a child directly about his or her attitude toward a child of a different race, ethnicity, or gender, you may not get an accurate reading. Implicit measures are less influenced by such “social desirability effects” than explicit measures of attitudes. This entry provides an overview of implicit measures of attitudes that have recently been created for use with preschool children.