Patterns of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes V. Reversals of trends from 2021-2024
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Between 2007-2020, implicit and explicit intergroup attitudes declined in bias steadily and were forecasted to continue toward attitude neutrality. But, since 2020, five years of new data (2021-2025) from 2.8 million U.S. respondents reveal that past trends have stalled or, in some cases, even reversed. The largest reversals in bias emerged for sexuality, transgender, race and skin-tone bias which increased by 12%-22% on implicit measures and by 24%-300% on explicit measures. Age, disability, and body weight bias, also increased, but at slower rates. Breakpoint analyses showed that implicit attitudes were the earlyindicators of change, reversing trend ~1 year earlier than explicit reports. For most topics, reversals were widespread across demographic groups and even extended to an international sample of 274,884 non-U.S. respondents. However, younger respondents who had previously shown the largest decreases in bias now showed increases in bias, and interactions with politics and gender (e.g., young conservative men were most likely to increase). Exploratory analyses ruled out various single-cause explanations. Instead, the best explaination is that 2020-2021 marked a turning point in the sociopolitical climate, whereby co-occurring existential threats from the covid-19 pandemic, amplified economic insecurity, political sectarianism, and online toxicity likely shaped the observed increases in intergroup bias. Together the data show that large populations of individual-level attitudes are continually shaped by more macro, societal-level events, with the full-spectrum data from 2007-2025 showing both reductions and increases in bias over nearly two decades.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7124172066