Assessing civilian perceptions of combat veterans: An IAT study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Evidence suggests that civilians may have considerable ambivalence to returning veterans. While civilians are frequently grateful for the service of military personnel, they can often be wary of the mental health and stability of returning veterans. If civilians do hold such negative biases toward veterans, whether implicit or explicit, this may have a significant impact on the ability of military personnel to integrate back into society. The goal of the study was to test whether participants held an implicit bias of mental instability toward veterans.

Method

In this study, 48 participants took an adapted version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998). Pictures of veterans and civilians were paired with words that either reflect

SUBMITTER: Schreger C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5621655 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature