Concurrency-IAT description

Implicit Association Tests (IATs) are reaction-time measures that tap implicit associations without requiring conscious introspection [48]. Our C-IAT was conducted in Dutch and constructed using the attribute categories “positive/negative” and the target categories “monogamy/multiple partners.” Participants had to categorize words, using the ‘z’ and ‘m’ keyboard keys, as either positive or negative (4 word stimuli each) and pictures as either depicting two people in a monogamous relationship or two people of which one had another partner (4 pictures in each category). The stimuli used in the IAT as well as links to the actual IAT used are provided in S1 IAT Test.

Our C-IAT consisted of five different blocks. In the first block (16 trials), participants were asked to categorize words appearing in the center of the computer screen according to two attribute categories (positive/negative). The ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ labels were displayed in the upper left and right corner of the computer screen. In the second block (32 trials), participants categorized words into the same attribute categories, but a second, target category of pictures was introduced in this block. Target labels were “monogamy” and “multiple partners”. These target category labels also appeared in the upper left and right corners of the screen, immediately below the attribute labels. The setup of the third (congruent, test) block (48 trials) was similar to the second block, except that the second block was presented as a practice block while the third block was presented as a test block. In the fourth block (32 trials), the positions of the target category labels (monogamy/multiple partners) on top of the screen were swapped. In order to categorize pictures, participants now had to press the opposite keys for the picture stimuli compared to the keys they had to use in blocks two and three. The positions of the “positive” and “negative” labels remained the same. The fifth block (48 trials) had the same setup as the fourth block of our IAT, but once again the fourth block was presented as a practice block while the fifth block was presented as a test block. The combinations of attributes under one key were counterbalanced, meaning one half of our sample first had “positive” and “monogamy” under one key at the second and third block, while the other half first had “positive” and “multiple partners” under one key in the second and third block. Table 1 provides a summary of the IAT procedure.