The marketer’s guide to implicit research: What it is and why it matters

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, author of the best-selling Thinking, Fast and Slow, says we make roughly 35,000 decisions a day. Our brains constantly process information from what to have for lunch to strategic business decisions. To manage all this decision-making, the human brain develops mental shortcuts. 

Kahnemann’s research says fast thinking relies on instinctive and emotional heuristics, which allow us to make “snap judgments” or decisions about things and move about our day. These unconscious mental shortcuts, or “heuristics,” come from the Greek word heuriskein, and means “to discover.” 

What does all this have to do with marketing? 

Let’s play a quick game. 

What’s your first reaction when you hear“Starbucks”? What about “Nike”? The scent of your grandmother’s perfume? 

Your subconscious response to these questions tell a story about your preferences and, at times, your cultural upbringing. This is also known as “implicit bias." Uncovering such biases through implicit research can help you better understand them, making you a better marketer. 

In this article, I’ll dive deep into the science behind implicit research, the implicit research test and how you can use it to develop products and marketing strategies your customers want. 

Let’s start by defining implicit research and learning more about why people do what they do.  

Implicit associations are shortcuts your brain creates. 

For instance, you're leaning on implicit associations when you use the word “Kleenex” as a blanket word for face tissue or “Xerox” for photocopying. 

These heuristics efficiently connect concepts, attitudes or stereotypes in seconds. However, they can also have unintended consequences. For example, gender roles and cultural perceptions are common implicit biases. When women are said to be “aggressive” when they enforce boundaries or “women are passive,” those are implicit biases regarding gender roles. 

According to the American Psychological Association, “Implicit bias, also known as implicit prejudice or implicit attitude, is a negative attitude, of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group.”

Of course, usually, these are things that aren’t stated out loud. Instead, they’re deeply buried in people to the point they have no idea they have them. It takes real effort to become self-aware.

A Harvard report from the Institutional AntiRacism and Accountability Project states: “Although humans believe we can “control” our behavior, scientists report that we have conscious access to only 2% of our brains’ emotional and cognitive process.”  

That’s a lot of unconscious behavior! This also affects cultural perceptions, such as assumptions that someone from China is likely a math whiz or stereotypes that Black people are natural athletes. It’s obvious these aren’t “correct,” yet they’re common stereotypes.

Such biases lead to people missing out on promotions, experiencing ageism, racial profiling and even wars between groups of people. 

"The trouble is that once people develop an implicit theory, the confirmation bias kicks in and they stop seeing evidence that doesn’t fit it."

— Carol Tavris (Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts)

How do these implicit biases impact our marketing? Easy. People also have implicit biases about specific brands. They might unconsciously think of Nike as a status symbol or Coke as a symbol of happiness.

Implicit testing can uncover such leanings.

As you do market research, you might find hard-to-define preferences. Participants can show a strong preference for one thing but be unable to name it. As you uncover your core customer’s implicit biases, you can create marketing strategies that lean into that unconscious bias and drive increased loyalty. 

As you might guess, there are methodologies for this test. 

Testing implicit associations with an IAT

In 1998, researchers Anthony Greenwald, Debbie McGhee and Jordan Schwartz developed the IAT, or implicit association test. For years, the scientific community hailed this as a major breakthrough in testing the subconscious. 

Here’s an implicit association test definition: 

Overview of the IAT and its purpose

Harvard says, “The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. The IAT may be especially interesting if it shows that you have an implicit attitude you did not know about.” 

Harvard’s Project Implicit states the test “measures the strength of associations between concepts.” Participants sort words into categories on one side of the screen and evaluate the words, i.e., “good” or “bad.” The idea is that the brain uses mental shortcuts to sort concepts and evaluate them in seconds. However, the responses may contradict what one would say if they thought about it due to other biases. Let’s see an implicit association test example below. 

How the implicit association test works

There are many different types of IATs out there that focus on possible associations or biases. One common use of the IAT is to gauge race-based implicit associations. As the American Psychological Association definition above says, it’s a test “against a specific social group.”  The IAT process shows the participant images and words and asks them to assess. The test tracks the speed and accuracy of responses to give a result. The results of these types of IAT studies indicate our attitudes and feelings that underlie our conscious awareness. 

Here’s an example: 

Another example is the gender and career-based IAT. This version tests for underlying bias against women in the workplace and can keep the so-called “glass ceiling” in place. You’re probably familiar with programs like Girls Who Code. Such programs are meant to combat implicit bias.  

The results of these types of implicit association test (IAT) studies indicate that our attitudes and feelings are often rooted in cultural biases. We’re often unaware of these biases until they’re pointed out through something like the IAT.

An abstract from MIT’s Daedalus says over forty million IAT tests have been completed. While widely used, it’s come under hot debate within the scientific community in recent years. 

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the test. 

1. Uncovering hidden biases:

It’s no secret that most people are unaware of their unconscious attitudes. They’re unconscious attitudes, after all. These attitudes are often firmly rooted in their upbringing. Additionally, people tend to self-report in ways they think make them look good to their peers. For example, people may say they buy a brand because of its sustainability, because that’s socially acceptable. Yet, the IAT results show they’re more concerned about looking good for their peers. 

2. Applications across domains:

By now, you’re probably thinking of all types of useful applications for the IAT. It’s created several diverse disciplines, including:

• Social psychology - Researchers use the IAT to uncover deep-seated prejudice.

• Market research - Marketers use it to explore unconscious consumer preferences to aid marketing decisions.

• Hiring practices - Many organizations use the IAT in their recruitment practices to identify and reduce subtle discrimination.

• Diversity training - Such training aims to help people become more self-aware of unconscious biases and break automatic associations.

• Efficient and scalable:

Researchers like the IAT because it’s adaptable. It’s easy to administer online or offline, making it efficient and scalable. 

3. Accuracy and reliability:

The test has enjoyed widespread popularity, but there is no popularity without criticism. Psychologist Ulrich Schimmack authored a paper published by the National Library of Medicine, disputing the validity of the test, saying it doesn’t consistently predict real-world behavior. 

One of the test’s creators, Anthony Greenwald, has even amended his original claims and now says the test best measures the strength of associations between concepts. While there are ongoing debates within the scientific community, there’s no denying the IAT can guide marketers. 

For example, Coca Cola used implicit research to create positive associations with happiness in the minds of consumers. Nike uses celebrity athletes to align the brand with excellence, which “reinforces subconscious connections.” 

4. Interpretation challenges:

The human brain is complex. While the IAT is simple to administer, some may oversimplify the findings. For example, Mr. Schimmack's research mentioned above found a weak correlation between scores and behavior. This means that its use as a predictive driver of behavior is limited. 

Additionally, researchers may overlook contextual factors, misinterpret test scores or overestimate the IAT's ability to solve social issues. There is no perfect test, and using several different types of tests in your market research is a good idea. 

Understanding your data quality is vital for any market research type of testing and market research you do.

Implicit testing is another tool to add to your market research toolbox so you can build a three-dimensional customer profile.  

Fast responses for subconscious responses:

The IAT is just one type of implicit research. Other types of studies include eye-tracking studies, response latency studies, which test how quickly participants respond to questions, and the Go/No Go Association Task (GNAT), among others. 

One thing that binds these implicit tests together is the speed of participants' responses, as researchers think a speedy response is most likely to tap into the subconscious.

Significant findings:

Brands can use the IAT to test subconscious consumer attitudes about messaging, imaging, package design and more. 

While traditional surveys are useful, there is such a thing as survey bias. Selecting participants and framing questions correctly are essential to getting the best results.

For instance, surveyed participants may say they prefer a brand for its sustainability efforts, while implicit research uncovers there’s a comfort factor the consumer may not even notice. 

Such implicit bias can help marketers create products and marketing campaigns that connect with their consumers. 

Case studies:

The Pew Research Center ran an IAT testing racial bias to measure unconscious racial biases of single-race and biracial adults in the United States. The results found most participants exhibited some level of implicit bias, with white and black people most often choosing their own group, while biracial adults were more divided. 

Harvard University runs Project Implicit, a website where anyone can take an IAT. Scott Sleek, in the Association for Psychological Science, found data from this site, 

“reveal that 75% of people who have taken the IAT have correlated men more strongly with work roles and women more strongly with family positions. A recent study showed that hiring managers whose scores on the IAT indicated gender bias tended to favor men over women in their hiring decisions.”

Market researchers appreciate the variety of tools available and may find the IAT helpful in determining attitudes toward certain brands, messages or products. 

The future of implicit testing

As researchers look for better ways of understanding human behavior, they’ll naturally want to explore all avenues, including technology. 

Advancements in technology

As technology simplifies testing and gathering data, researchers know data quality is the difference between strategic insights that guide decision-making or facing a mess of unusable data. 

Today’s AI-driven automation platforms parse massive quantities of data to detect subtle shifts in consumer preferences. For example, AI-driven testing tools like Zappi’s AI Agents can measure immediate consumer sentiment to adjust marketing strategies, providing detailed summaries and key results, as well as recommendations.

Such tools can enhance implicit research with speed and insights. AI tools can automate implicit research in hours instead of days or months and pick up subtle patterns human analysts can miss. 

Such technology allows for a deeper understanding of customer preferences in real time. 

Lauren Stafford-Webb, SoFi’s CMO, shares of the impact of this, saying, "The improvement in ad effectiveness comes down to rapid iteration. An example of how our day works. We have a couple of edits. We throw them into Zappi in the morning. Within 3-4 hours we have both qual and quant feedback on all key metrics — favorability, uniqueness, consideration. We can walk away and say ‘OK, these are the changes we need to make’ and by the end of the day I have 3 new edits."

Broader applications

The DecisionAnalyst reports some researchers use both the IAT and traditional surveys to predict consumer trends and preferences better. For example, using the IAT and typical surveys on the same brand, product or concept and finding strong IAT scores is a probable indicator of a preference. If the IAT scores are neutral, there’s not likely much preference. 

Some educators are using the race-focused IAT to test students on racial bias. Participants said it helped them have greater self-awareness, which can help break down racial stereotypes. 

In the area of public policy, the Department of Justice created an initiative to train all DOJ employees, including federal law enforcement, to recognize implicit bias. 

Implicit biases or “heuristics” cause you to instantly grasp concepts and ideas without thinking about them. They’re a natural shortcut for simplifying decision-making, but unconscious biases can cause us to think, act and behave in certain ways we aren’t fully aware of. 

Implicit research helps us better understand these unconscious behaviors, giving insight into human behavior.