TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving Empirical Scrutiny of the Habitus: A Plea for Incorporating Implicit Association Tests in Sociological Research
AU - Schaap, Julian
AU - van der Waal, Jeroen
AU - de Koster, Willem
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Many studies invoke the concept of the Bourdieusian habitus to account for a plethora of stratified patterns uncovered by conventional social-scientific methods. However, as a stratum-specific, embodied and largely non-declarative set of dispositions, the role of the habitus in those stratified patterns is typically not adequately scrutinised empirically. Instead, the habitus is often attributed theoretically to an empirically established link between stratification indicators and an outcome of interest. In this research note, we argue that combining conventional methods in stratification research with latency-based measures such as the Implicit Association Test enables better measurement of the habitus. This sociological application of Implicit Association Tests enables researchers to: (1) identify empirically the existence of different habitus among different social strata; and (2) determine their role in the stratified patterns to which they have thus far been attributed theoretically.
AB - Many studies invoke the concept of the Bourdieusian habitus to account for a plethora of stratified patterns uncovered by conventional social-scientific methods. However, as a stratum-specific, embodied and largely non-declarative set of dispositions, the role of the habitus in those stratified patterns is typically not adequately scrutinised empirically. Instead, the habitus is often attributed theoretically to an empirically established link between stratification indicators and an outcome of interest. In this research note, we argue that combining conventional methods in stratification research with latency-based measures such as the Implicit Association Test enables better measurement of the habitus. This sociological application of Implicit Association Tests enables researchers to: (1) identify empirically the existence of different habitus among different social strata; and (2) determine their role in the stratified patterns to which they have thus far been attributed theoretically.
UR - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0038038519846417
U2 - 10.1177/0038038519846417
DO - 10.1177/0038038519846417
M3 - Article
SN - 0038-0385
VL - 53
SP - 967
EP - 976
JO - Sociology
JF - Sociology
IS - 5
ER -