Implicit and explicit attitudes toward people with disabilities and effects of the internal and external sources of motivation to moderating prejudice

Abstract

The present study investigated implicit and explicit attitudes toward people with disabilities and examined the effects of internal versus external source of motivation to respond without prejudice. The implicit and explicit attitudes of undergraduate students (N= 109) toward people with disabilities were measured, and the effects of both kinds of motivation in regulating prejudice were investigated. The results were as follows: undergraduate students had positive explicit attitudes toward people with disabilities; however, they were also found to have negative implicit attitudes toward people with disabilities; and high internal motivation to regulate prejudice effectively moderated implicit attitudes toward people with disabilities. We discuss possible ways to effectively moderate prejudice in education.