Implicit Bias in Mental Health Care

Explicit attitudes are obviously predictive of behavior. However, two decades of research has shown that implicit attitudes have greater predictive validity than explicit attitudes in a particular set of situations. This chapter defines implicit and explicit attitudes and associations and reviews the scientific literature regarding implicit bias in the medical, psychology, and psychiatry literature. The authors pay specific attention to documented effects of implicit bias related to race and ethnicity, as well as to mental health diagnoses and body weight. The authors also outline interventions to decrease implicit bias in clinical care, as well as pitfalls to avoid when attempting to decrease implicit bias.