What makes a family an “all-American” family? HP set out to answer this question by recruiting a diverse group of Americans and asking them to create their own portrait of an “all-American” family. We discovered that there is a big difference between the picture many of us have of the “typical” American family and the reality of American families today.
In this study, we set out to test perceptions of traditional versus non-traditional families in America1. In addition to traditional survey questions, we also conducted an “implicit reaction time test”, a scientific research technique used to understand implicit feelings and attitudes. By approaching the study this way, we were able to measure the differences between what people say they believe and their true, underlying biases.