The languages of the Implicit Association Test: Methodological implications from a case study

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Research on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has contributed to the identification of factors that may influence languages’ bias formation. Accents, language varieties, and language lexical-semantic properties affect the relationship between cognitive and emotional processes. Our study aims to examine the influence of the language used during the administration of the IAT on bilingual participants’ performance—specifically, on the detected biases toward Traditional Galician (TG) and Galician Spanish (GS). Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative, experimental design was created to explore the BIAS and the IAT language effect on participants’ IAT scores. A total of 168 bilingual students in Galicia, an autonomous community in Spain with two official languages (Spanish and Galician), took part in our study. Data and analysis: An ANOVA was performed to explore the interaction and main effect of IAT’s language and BIAS on IAT scores. Results showed a statistically significant interaction effect, reflecting that the IAT scores were different both in terms of BIAS and IAT’s language. Findings/conclusions: Our findings suggest that both bias and the IAT language had an impact on bilingual participants’ IAT scores. Originality: This study is one of the first studies to confirm the influence of the IAT language over the IAT results in bilingual populations. Significance/implications: The language of IAT appears to be important when investigating bilingual populations by means of this tool. The discussion emphasizes the need for controlling the linguistic setup in the IAT.