Roddy, S., Stewart, I. & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2010). Anti-fat, pro-slim, or both? Using two reaction-time based measures to assess implicit attitudes to the slim and overweight. Journal of Health Psychology, 15(3), 416-425.
Two measures of implicit attitudes, the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and the Implicit Association Test (IAT), were compared with each other and with a measure of explicit attitudes in the assessment of implicit pro-slim / anti-fat bias. Results from both implicit tests indicated higher levels of bias than revealed by the explicit measure. The IRAP data suggested that it was participants' pro-slim rather than anti-fat bias, which was driving this effect. Explicit attitudes and feelings towards the overweight were significant predictors of behavioral intentions towards the overweight with the IRAP offering a greater contribution to predictive validity than the IAT.