IMPLICIT-EXPLICIT EVALUATIVE DISCREPANCIES IN DEPRESSION AND INFORMATION SEEKING

The present work examines whether discrepancies in implicit and explicit evaluations of depression predict discrepancy-relevant information seeking. Specifically, we predicted that as discrepancy in implicit and explicit evaluations of depression increased (i.e., greater implicit-explicit evaluative discrepancies), participants would report an increased preference for information related to depression, regardless of the direction of their discrepancy. Participants first selected whether to read a depression-related or a non-depression-related report and then reported their intent to engage in behaviors that would allow them to learn more about depression. Participants then completed the Implicit Association Test and the Perceived Devaluation-Discrimination scale, and these measures were used to compute the magnitude of evaluative discrepancy. As predicted, greater implicit-explicit evaluative discrepancies predicted preferences for the depression-related report and a greater desire to learn more about depression, regardless of direction of discrepancy. Thus, implicit-explicit evaluative discrepancies can also result in discrepancy-relevant information seeking, another downstream consequence of evaluative discrepancies.