The Modern Biased Information Test: Proposing alternatives for implicit measures

Abstract

The present article describes the development of a Modern Biased Information Test (MBIT) inspired by the work published by Donald Campbell in 1950 on indirect measures of prejudice. A biased information test aims to tap individuals' intergroup attitudes from the selective information they use to describe group members. Two biased information tests were developed to measure ethnocentric and androcentric biases, respectively, and applied in four convenience samples of students from two different cultural settings (Costa Rica and the USA). The internal consistency for the accuracy indicators derived from both tests was acceptable and comparable across cultures. In contrast, the internal consistency for ethnocentric biases was adequate across samples and cultures, but the internal consistency for androcentric biases was unacceptable across both cultures. Results are discussed in the line of the usefulness of alternative measures for tapping implicit attitudes.