A Comparison of Implicit and Explicit Attitude Measures: An Application of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to Fast Food Restaurant Brands

The study attempted to assess people's attitudes toward fast food restaurant brands by comparing the results of explicit and implicit attitude measures. A total of 60 college students (33 Americans and 27 Koreans) were recruited to complete both a self-report survey and the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Two known fast food restaurant brands were selected and the results of this study show that Korean respondents have inconsistent response patterns in explicit/implicit measures toward the two brands, while consistent patterns are found among Americans in the same context. In terms of the correlation results, it was observed that both explicit and implicit attitude measures are significantly correlated with the frequency of fast food restaurant visits (FFRV) among Koreans, whereas explicit liking was not correlated with FFRV in the significant correlations between other variables (GEA and IA) among Americans. The researchers' elaborations on the literature and the experimental study reveal several conclusions, recommendations, and implications.