Patterns of implicit and explicit attitudes V: Increases in bias from 2021 to 2025

Between 2007 and 2020, implicit and explicit intergroup attitudes declined in bias steadily and were forecasted to continue toward attitude neutrality. But, since 2020, 5 y of new data (2021–2025) from 2.8 million U.S. respondents reveal that past trends have stalled or, in some cases, even reversed. The largest reversals in bias emerged for sexuality, transgender, race, and skin-tone bias which increased by 12 to 22% on implicit measures and by 24% to more than tripling on explicit measures. Age, disability, and body weight bias also increased, but at relatively slower rates. Breakpoint analyses showed that implicit attitudes were early indicators of change, reversing trend ~1 y earlier than explicit reports. For most topics, reversals were widespread across demographic groups and even extended to an international sample of 274,884 non-U.S. respondents. However, younger respondents (<20-y-old)—who had previously shown the largest decreases in bias—now showed the largest increases in bias; these trends also interacted with politics and gender (e.g., young conservative men were the most likely to increase). Exploratory analyses ruled out various single-cause explanations. Instead, we suggest that the best explanation is that 2020–2021 marked a turning point in the sociopolitical climate, whereby co-occurring existential threats from the COVID-19 pandemic, amplified economic insecurity, political sectarianism, and online toxicity prompted increases in intergroup bias. These data underscore how large populations of individual-level attitudes are continually shaped and altered by macro, societal-level events.