The Use of Implicit Association Testing Applied to the Relationships of Individuals Who Are Visually Impaired Abstract

摘要

This study used the implicit association test (IAT) to measure attitudes of undergraduate and graduate-level university students toward people with blindness or visual impairments in regard to romantic relationships. The IAT is a computer-generated psychometric assessment that measures unconscious biases. The overall results showed that this sample of sighted participants demonstrated a moderate automatic preference for people with sight over people with blindness in romantic relationships. Implications for families and practitioners are discussed along with future research that builds upon this initial experiment by applying the IAT methodology to more complex topics in the field of blindness and visual impairment.