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Response Latency
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only the more conscious variety. In the condition with shorter pauses, little or no
conscious processing interfered with the automatic evocation and expression of the
stereotype association. Response latency allowed researchers to demonstrate that the
presence of stereotypes in memory is not related to the conscious endorsement of those
stereotypes. Stereotypes are activated spontaneously and automatically, and conscious
efforts are critical in efforts to attenuate expression of the negative effects of automatic
stereotypes. The social implications of this finding for changing negative stereotypes
may be tremendous, and this increased understanding has been importantly facilitated
through the use of response time methodology.
Implicit activation of stereotypes affects behavior. Response latency measures
have revealed that stereotypes exist at the level of memory and can be activated
automatically. However, the previous studies do not clarify when implicit stereotypes
might affect behavior. A series of experiments by Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996)
dramatically demonstrated that stereotypes affect behavior even when the stereotypes
were activated without conscious awareness. In these studies, response latency was used
as a behavioral dependent measure, rather than as a measure of representation in memory
(as in studies described earlier). In the first experiment, Bargh et al. (1996) used a
scrambled sentence task to prime either politeness or rudeness by imbedding key words
into the sentences. When participants finished the task, they were told to inform the
experimenter that they were done. After completing the task, participants would find the
experimenter apparently talking to another subject (who was actually a confederate).
Response latency was used to assess how long the participant would wait before
interrupting the experimenter's conversation. Individuals primed with rudeness words