Do features of stimuli inXuence IAT eVects?

The Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) is a categorization task intended to measure the strength of associations between concepts. The present research investigated the inXuence of individual stimuli on IAT eVects. Exploring implicit attitudes of East and West Germans, we systematically manipulated relatedness of target stimuli to the attribute dimension and, simultaneously, relatedness of attribute stimuli to the target dimension. Two experiments demonstrate the inXuence of stimulus associations as one source that drives IAT eVects. Depending on the strength and the direction of these cross-category associations, the result was either stronger IAT eVects or a decline of IAT eVects. Implications for theoretical models as well as for the interpretation of IAT eVects are discussed.  2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.