Abstract

In this work we critically review the Implicit Association Test (IAT), seven years after the breakthrough paper of Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz (1998). The IAT is contextualized in the field of implicit measurement techniques and its most important advantages are described. Indications regarding its reliability and validity are provided. The most prominent explanations that have been proposed so far in the literature for the mechanisms underlying the IAT effect and the nature of the cognitive associations that it allows to measure are described. Two special sections are devoted to the indications and meaning of the contextual variability of the IAT index, and to the potential applications of this instrument.