Workplace gender discrimination and the implicit association test

Women are under-represented at senior levels within organisations. They also fareless well than their male counterparts in reward and career opportunities. Attitudestoward women in the workplace are thought to underpin these disparities and moreand more organisations are introducing attitude measures into diversity and inclusioninitiatives to: 1) raise awareness amongst employees of implicit attitudes, 2) educateemployees on how these attitudes can influence behaviour and 3) re-measure theattitude after an intervention to assess whether the attitude has changed. TheImplicit Association Test (IAT: Greenwald, et al., 1998) is the most popular tool usedto assess attitudes. However, questions over the predictive validity of the measurehave been raised and the evidence for the real world impact of the implicit attitudes islimited (Blanton et al., 2009; Landy, 2008; Tetlock & Mitchell, 2009; Wax, 2010).Whilst there is growing research in the area of race, little research has explored theability of the IAT to predict gender discrimination. This thesis addresses thisimportant gap in the literature. Three empirical studies were conducted. The firststudy explored whether gender IATs were predictive of personnel decisions thatfavour men and whether affect- and cognition-based gender IATs were equallypredictive of behaviour. The second two studies explored the predictive validity ofthe IAT in comparison to an explicit measure of one type of gender attitude,benevolent sexism. The results revealed implicit gender attitudes were stronglyheld. However, they did not consistently predict behaviour across the studies.Overall, the results suggest that the IAT may only predict workplace genderdiscrimination in a very select set of circumstances. The attitude component that anIAT assesses, the personnel decision and participant demographics all impact thepredictive validity of the tool. The interplay between the IAT and behaviour thereforeappears to be more complex than is assumed.

Monocyte subpopulation counts and TNF alpha associations with clinical outcome post ST elevation myocardial infarction

Background Monocytes are implicated in the initiation and progression of the atherosclerotic plaque contributing to its instability and rupture. Although peripheral monocytosis has been related to poor clinical outcome post ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), only scarce information is available of mechanisms of this association. Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is a key cytokine in the acute phase inflammatory response, and it is predominantly produced by inflammatory macrophages. Little is known about TNFα association with circulating monocyte subpopulations post STEMI. Method A total of 142 STEMI patients (mean age 62±13 years; 72% male) treated with percutaneous revascularization were recruited with blood samples obtained within first 24 hours from the onset and on day 10-14. Peripheral blood monocyte subpopulations were enumerated and characterized using flow cytometry after staining for CD14, CD16 and CCR2 and were defined as: CD14++CD16-CCR2+ (Mon1), CD14++CD16+CCR+ (Mon2) and CD14+CD16++CCR2- (Mon3) cells. Plasma levels of TNFα were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA, Peprotec system, UK). Major adverse cardiac events (MACE), defined as recurrent STEMI, new diagnosis of heart failure and death were recorded at follow up, mean of 164±134 days. Results TNFα levels were significantly higher 24 hours post STEMI, compared to day 14 (paired t-test, p <0.001) with day 1 levels weakly correlated with total monocyte count as well as Mon1 (Spearman’s correlation, r=0.19, p=0.02 and r=0.22, p=0.01, respectively). There was no correlation between TNFα and Mon2 or Mon3 subpopulations. TNFα levels were significantly higher in patients with a recorded MACE (n=28, Mann-Whitney test, p<0.001) (figure 1).⇓