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Indirect Measurement of Sexual Orientation: Comparison of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, Viewing Time, and Choice Reaction Time Tasks

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Abstract

The present study was conducted to validate an adaptation of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as an indirect latency-based measure of sexual orientation. Furthermore, reliability and criterion validity of the IRAP were compared to two established indirect measures of sexual orientation: a Choice Reaction Time task (CRT) and a Viewing Time (VT) task. A sample of 87 heterosexual and 35 gay men completed all three indirect measures in an online study. The IRAP and the VT predicted sexual orientation nearly perfectly. Both measures also showed a considerable amount of convergent validity. Reliabilities (internal consistencies) reached satisfactory levels. In contrast, the CRT did not tap into sexual orientation in the present study. In sum, the VT measure performed best, with the IRAP showing only slightly lower reliability and criterion validity, whereas the CRT did not yield any evidence of reliability or criterion validity in the present research. The results were discussed in the light of specific task properties of the indirect latency-based measures (task-relevance vs. task-irrelevance).

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Notes

  1. Three participants did not provide any information regarding their age.

  2. As is the case for all latency-based measures, we had to hypothesize that reaction times may be affected by participants’ age. We included age as a covariate in all our analyses in order to control for general age-reaction speed effects. For reasons of parsimony, results of the covariate analyses are only reported when significant. Unless otherwise reported, the covariate did not have a significant effect. However, in this case including the covariate–although non-significant–yielded a significant Sexual Orientation × Trial Type interaction effect in the respective ANOVA reported above, F(3, 112) = 3.09 p < .05, η² = .03.

  3. In order to control for possible habituation or practice effects (as discussed by Santtila et al., 2009) due to the high number of trials in the present CRT, we also conducted all analyses separately for the first 108 and second 108 trials. The pattern found in the analysis of all trials still held for both halves of trials, with significant main effects of Age and Sexual Orientation, but no significant two-way or three-way interactions were obtained. Consequently, the AUC indices of both scores were not significant (AUC = .49 for the first 108 trials, and AUC = .56 for the second 108 trials).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Social and Legal Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111, Bonn, Germany

    Jelena Rönspies, Alexander F. Schmidt, Anna Melnikova, Rosina Krumova, Asadeh Zolfagari & Rainer Banse

  2. INSIDE Research Unit, Institute for Health and Behaviour, University of Luxembourg, Walferdange, Luxembourg

    Alexander F. Schmidt

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  1. Jelena Rönspies
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Correspondence to Jelena Rönspies.

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Rönspies, J., Schmidt, A.F., Melnikova, A. et al. Indirect Measurement of Sexual Orientation: Comparison of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, Viewing Time, and Choice Reaction Time Tasks. Arch Sex Behav 44, 1483–1492 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0473-1

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