Stereotyping

Definition of Stereotypes

the cognitive component of attitudes towards a social group, belief about what a particular group is like

Definitions of Schema

Cognitive frameworks for organising, interpreting and recalling information

Why do we form / use stereotypes?

1. categorising for efficiency - we act as ‘cognitive misers’ where the least cognitive effort is preferable

2. motivational purpose - to feel positive about group identity in comparison to other social groups

Stereotypes as Theories

guiding what we attend to and how we process information

stereotype consistent = processed more quickly and recalled more accurately

stereotype inconsistent individuals don’t necessarily change stereotypes but instead they are subtyped (seen as not belonging)

Dovidio, Evan’s and Tyler (1986)

aim - to explore whether stereotype consistent information is processed faster than inconsistent information

method - 12 male and 24 females presented ‘black’ and ‘white’ as primes, followed by positive or negative stereotypical words and participants had to respond whether the word was “ever true” or “always false”

findings - responce to traits stereotypically attributed to these social groups

Katz and Braly (1933)

surveyed 100 white male princeton students about the traits they associate with 10 ethnic national groups

given list of 84 traits and asked to select the 5 most typical of each group

provided information about trait more strongly associated and degree of consistency

When do stereotypes change?

Dependant on contextual influence

Dasgupta and Asgari (2004)

assessed female college students gender stereotypes in there 1st and 2nd year of either women’s college or co-educational college

findings - influence of college environment and time spent in college affect automatic beliefs about gender

type of college → proportion of female faculty → stereotypical belief

Stereotype Content Model

all groups can be stereotyped along 2 dimensions - warmth and competence

lack of threat predicts warmth

social status predicts competence

The “Women are Wonderful” Effect

women penalised for not living up to benevolently sexist stereotypes

Deutsch, LeBaron and Fryer (1987)

asked participants to rate how warm, happy, carefree and relaxed people were based on a verbal description and accompanied by either no photo, smiling photo or non-smiling photo

findings - smiling photos = both better warmth score

non smiling female photo = much lower warmth score than males

conclusion - if women don’t express warm, nonverbal behaiovur as expected by these stereotypes, they fae harsher critique

Stereotype Threat

occurs when people believe they might be judged in light of a negative stereotype and this might inadvertently act in some way to confirm a negative stereotype

Steele and Aronson (1995)

examined performance on intellectual ability test among black and white participants

condition 1 - race made salient

condition 2 - non-salient

findings - when race salient, black participants achieved worse scores

Spencer, Steele and Quinn (1999)

male and female participants selected with approximate math ability

participants asked to take a maths test that was either described as being diagnostic of gender differences in maths or not

findings - women achieved lower scores when told test was diagnostic of gender differences

Stereotype Threat Process

stereotype activations leads to physical stress, self-monitoring and thought suppression

this leads to lower performance due to reduced capacity to complete the task

Aronson, Fried and Good (2002)

aim - to challenge the effects of stereotype threat of African American college students performance in academic tests

method - 42 black and 37 white participents, intervention focused on conceptions of intelligence as malleable or fixed using pen pals

findings - malleable pen pal gave better results