Chart 1.
Prevalence of Explicit and Implicit Bias Against Gay and Lesbian Individuals Among Heterosexual First-Year Medical Students, Medical Student CHANGES Baseline Survey, 2010a
| No implicit bias | Implicit bias | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No explicit bias | 13.94% (n = 291) |
40.28% (n = 841) |
54.21% (n = 1,132) |
| Explicit bias | 4.55% (n = 95)b |
41.24% (n = 861) |
45.79% (n = 956)c |
| Total | 18.49% (n = 386) |
81.51% (n = 1,702)d |
100% (n = 2,088) |
Respondents to the Medical Student Cognitive Habits and Growth Evaluation Study (CHANGES) baseline survey in fall 2010 included 4,441 heterosexual first-year medical students from 49 medical schools across the United States. Half of the survey respondents were randomly assigned to complete a sexual orientation Implicit Association Test (IAT). Implicit bias was defined by negative IAT D-scores. Explicit bias was defined by lower composite feeling thermometer ratings for lesbian and gay targets than for “Caucasian” targets. This chart reports results for the 2,088 respondents with complete data on both measures of bias (excluding those who were not assigned to the sexual orientation IAT and those who chose not to respond to the three relevant explicit attitude items). Note that this chart is provided for illustrative purposes only; the variables included in the main analysis were retained in their numeric form rather than categorized as shown here.
Explicit bias in the absence of implicit bias is not generally predicted by current theories of bias, but it could potentially reflect normative influences for expressing sexual orientation biases in the respondent’s social environment.53 Given the small number of respondents who exhibited this pattern, this result may be influenced by measurement error, particularly in the IAT, in which D-scores depend on reaction time data.
To give an indication of the magnitude of explicit bias on an individual level, the authors examined the number of respondents who rated gay and lesbian targets more than 10 points lower than “Caucasian” targets on the feeling thermometer, since the rating scale was marked in 10-point intervals. Of the respondents included in this table, 26.92% (562/2,088) had a differential greater than 10.
To give an indication of the magnitude of implicit bias on an individual level, the authors examined the number of respondents whose IAT D-scores were more extreme than –.5, viewed as a “medium” level of bias.7,35 Of the respondents included in this table, 49.04% (1,024/2,088) were beyond this threshold.