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Application of implicit attitude measures to the blood donation context
Author(s) -
Warfel Regina M.,
France Christopher R.,
France Janis L.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
transfusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.045
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1537-2995
pISSN - 0041-1132
DOI - 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2011.03271.x
Subject(s) - donation , blood donor , context (archaeology) , psychology , implicit attitude , social psychology , medicine , paleontology , economics , immunology , biology , economic growth
BACKGROUND: Past blood donation research has relied on explicit (self‐report) measures to understand blood donation motivations, but has not yet considered the inherent implicit or automatic processing involved in decision‐making. This study addresses this limitation by introducing and validating two novel implicit measures of blood donation attitudes. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Healthy young adults (n = 253) performed both image and word versions of a Single Target Implicit Association Test (ST‐IAT) and then completed self‐report measures of blood donation attitudes, blood and needle fears, social desirability, and donation intention. RESULTS: These results affirmed the validity of the blood donation ST‐IATs in at least three ways. First, as expected, nondonors demonstrated more negative implicit donation attitudes than donors. Second, the implicit measures were significantly related in expected directions with explicit measures of donation attitudes as well as blood and needle fears. Finally, implicit donation attitudes were significantly related to donation intention, and the Image ST‐IAT (but not the Word ST‐IAT) significantly enhanced prediction of donation intention over and above needle fears and marginally enhanced prediction over and above blood fears. CONCLUSION: Image and word versions of the blood donation ST‐IAT offer a valid method of assessing underlying automatic attitudes toward blood donation.