Uli Schimmack | Implicit preferences

• May 04, 2021
• Speaker: Uli Schimmack
  
• Topic: Implicit Preferences: Do Implicit Measures Predict Your Behavior Better Than You Can?
  
  

The implicit revolution in psychology is based on the idea that human emotions, attitudes, and behaviors can occur unconsciously – without awareness. Greenwald et al. (1998) developed the Implicit Association Test to measure individual differences in implicit constructs such as implicit racism. However, the test was never really validated and has produced many false findings (e.g., implicit self-hatred of African Americans). I discuss what lessons we can take away from this major fiasco in social psychology to strengthen the self-correcting forces of science.

The main aim of Uli Schimmack’s research is to contribute to the scientific understanding of happiness. The ultimate goal is to develop a causal theory of happiness that can be used to predict the impact of personal and societal changes on happiness (cf. Kahneman, Schwarz, & Diener, 1999, “Well-Being: The foundations of hedonic psychology”). The scientific term for happiness is subjective well-being (SWB). SWB has a cognitive and an affective component. The cognitive component is assessed with life-satisfaction judgments (“I am satisfied with my life.”). The affective component is based on the amount of pleasant and unpleasant experiences in people’s lives.

Uli is also a prominent and very productive meta-researcher who posts regularly on his Replicability-Index and contributes daily to the Facebook Psychological Methods Discussion group (now approaching 40,000 members and counting) which he started.