Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 3, 2000

Volume 28, Number 23

Test reveals voters' unconscious
presidential preferences

A recently created website that measures candidate preferences reveals a gap between respondents' conscious and unconscious preferences.

The website, created by investigators at Yale and the University of Washington, shows that some test takers have a conscious preference for Democrat Bill Bradley and Republican John McCain.

However, a test of respondents' unconscious leanings reveals that they show the opposite implicit preference -- that is, self-avowed Bradley supporters prefer Democrat Al Gore and self-avowed McCain supporters prefer Republican George Bush.

"These results are intriguing because of the discrepancy between conscious and unconscious preferences," says Mahzarin Banaji, professor of psychology.

The website, which opened Nov. 7, has logged a total of 2,400 tests comparing various pairs of candidates. The same website -- created by Banaji; Brian Nosek, a graduate student at Yale; and Anthony Greenwald, professor of psychology at the University of Washington -- also measures explicit and implicit biases about race, gender and age.

The measure of voters' explicit, or conscious, attitudes shows Republicans favoring McCain over Bush 45% to 31%. Democrats in the same measure showed a preference for Bradley -- 43% to 28%.

The measure of unconscious preference, however, differs: voters favored Bush over McCain 41% to 24% and Gore over Bradley 42% to 28%.

In taking the online test, respondents are first asked to state their conscious preference for one of two candidates within a pair that the respondent had selected for comparison, for example, Bush vs. McCain, or Bradley vs. Gore. Respondents also were asked to report party affiliation as Republican, Democrat or independent. Each respondent then completed a test designed to measure unconscious preference, using a technique in which the speed at which they associated pleasant and unpleasant items with candidates' names and faces was measured.

"Preferences for candidates from opposing parties are consistent with our expectation -- on both conscious and unconscious measures of preference Republicans favor Republican candidates over Democratic candidates and Democrats show the expected reverse pattern," Banaji says.

The investigators believe the discrepancy between conscious and unconscious preferences reflect the attitudes, beliefs and values one can explicitly articulate. On the other hand, unconscious, or implicit, attitudes may reflect more subtle influences, such as a candidate's fame and visibility, family name, and other factors that are not available to conscious awareness, say the scientists.

According to Banaji and Greenwald, it remains to be seen which attitude -- conscious or unconscious -- reflects what voters will actually do when it is time to cast their ballot.

To take the Yale-UW test, visit www.yale.edu/implicit or www.depts.washington/iat.

-- By Jacqueline Weaver

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