Predictive Validity and Procedural Justice of the Implicit Association Test

Since its introduction, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has been adapted and used in many areas of psychology. Initially developed as a measure of implicit attitudes related to social constructs such as race (e.g., Zeigert & Hanges, 2005), the IAT has been used to measure other constructs, such as conscientiousness (Steffens, 2004). Due to psychometric concerns, however, industrial-organizational psychologists have been reluctant to make use of the test. Landy (2008) argued that the methodology of IAT research is too far removed from real-life work settings to consider applying it to personnel decisions and research. Currently, the IAT is not thought to be a useful personnel measure (Haines & Sumner, 2006). However, research in this area is in its infancy and such broad conclusions seem premature. The goal of this study is to investigate the possible usefulness of the IAT for predicting workplace relevant performance. An additional goal was to examine reactions to the IAT in an employee selection scenario.