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IAT stands for Implicit Association Test, a psychological tool designed to measure how strongly an individual associates two concepts or categories. Developed in 1998 by Harvard University's Project Implicit, the IAT was created to assess implicit attitudes, biases, and stereotypes that may be present in a person's mind.

During an IAT, participants are presented with a series of pairings and sorting tasks, requiring them to associate words, images, or concepts with different categories, such as food and good or good and bad. The test aims to uncover automatic and unconscious patterns of thought, which may contradict explicit self-reporting. Implicit attitudes can be neutral, negative, or positive and are often outside of a person's awareness.

The IAT is typically administered using a computer software, which standardizes the presentation of stimuli and measures response times. Results are typically expressed in terms of "d" scores, which quantify the magnitude of an individual's implicit bias. A higher "d" score indicates a stronger association between two concepts, suggesting a more significant implicit bias.

IATs have been used in various fields to study topics such as:

* Stereotyping and bias in educational settings

* Sexism and racism in employment

* Social and cultural understandings of health behaviors

* Public opinion formation about environmental and social issues

The lack of control over explicit self-reporting has led some researchers to question the IAT's validity and reliability. However, as a cognitive tool, the IAT remains widely used and remains an area of ongoing research, providing insights into how people form perceptions and judgments.