Role of Type 2 Processing in the Suppression and Expression of Prejudice: An Analysis Using the Implicit Association Test and Response Times with Japanese Data

This study investigates whether dual process theories (DPTs) can explain the mechanism behind the suppression of prejudice. A growing number of sociologists are using DPTs to examine the role of social norms in suppressing prejudice. However, previous studies have not clearly distinguished between Type 1 and Type 2 processing when testing the role of the latter. We use a method to overcome this methodological limitation by measuring implicit prejudice and response times. Using online survey data from Japan, where social norms around the suppression of prejudice are generally considered to be weak, and the implicit association test, we show that a longer response time implies a smaller association between explicit and implicit prejudices. This suggests that Type 2 processing works toward suppressing prejudice, as assumed by DPTs.