An Exploration of Residents’ Implicit Biases Towards Depression—a Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Implicit attitudes are outside of conscious awareness and are thought to affect automatic responses outside of one’s deliberate control, with the potential to impact physician-patient relationships. Objective: To measure the nature and extent of implicit biases towards depression in internal medicine and psychiatry residents. Design: Descriptive and comparative study. Participants: Fifty-one residents from three internal medicine programs and 35 residents from three psychiatry programs located in two states. Interventions: Participants were sent a link to voluntarily participate in four online implicit association tests. Residents’ identities were anonymous. Main Measures: Four implicit association tests to measure the association of (1) attitude (good/bad), (2) permanence, (3) controllability, and (4) etiology with depression/physical illness. Key Results: Internal medicine residents demonstrated a significant association between depression and negative attitudes (t(38) = 6.01, p