Week 1 - Schemas and Stereotypes

Social Information Processing

• How we process information and make sense of the world.

• Considers how we process information, think about ourselves and others, and how knowledge structures affect our interpretation of the world.

Schemas

• A set of interrelated cognitions that allows us to quickly make sense of people, situations, events, or places based on limited information.

• Cognitive structure representing knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus.

How Schemas Work

• Identification: Assigning a schema to the target.

• Application: Processing information according to that schema, using top-down processing.

Application Stages:

• Selective encoding.

• Selective retrieval.

• Interpretation and evaluation.

• Prediction.

• Filling in missing data.

Schema-Inconsistent Information

• Schema-irrelevant: Ignored or quickly forgotten.

• Schema-consistent: Processed quickly and efficiently, easily recalled.

• Schema-inconsistent: Requires incongruence reconciliation, subtyping, or can lead to a "rebound effect."

Schema Change

• Book-keeping model: Gradual updates with new information.

• Conversion model: Large change after accumulating critical mass of disconfirming information.

• Subtyping model: Change configuration by forming subcategories.

Determinants of Schema Use

1. Vividness: Emotionally interesting, concrete, or close in place/time.

2. Saliency: Distinctive features (dress, appearance, skin color) or contextually distinctive factors.

3. Accessibility: Schema priming affects political ideals.

Factors Affecting Schema Use

• Important outcomes (rewards or punishments) lead to more accurate, data-driven schemas.

• Costs of being wrong increase vigilance and attention to data.

• Distraction and anxiety cause reliance on schematic processing.

• Awareness of inaccurate schema processing leads to active resistance.

Individual Differences

• Attributional complexity.

• Certainty orientation.

• Personal Need for Structure (PNS).

• Need for cognition.

• Cognitive complexity.

• Perceptual Skill

Schema Inconsistent Info PNS

• Low in PNS, Schematic (stereotypic) expectation violation = more creative insight and divergent thinking

• High in PNS, the opposite occurs (these individuals became less divergent and flexible, and achieved fewer creative insights)

Stereotypes

• A social perception of an individual in terms of group membership or physical attributes.

• A form of social categorization affecting behavior of those who hold the stereotype.

• A stereotype is a schema with all the properties of schemas.

Formation and Impact of Stereotypes

• Simplifies the complex social world due to limited processing capacity.

• Acquired at a young age.

• Slow to change, automatic, and impacts behavior.

• Can arise from and sustain intergroup hostility.

• Linked to prejudice and are pervasive, resisting contrary information (confirmation bias).

Memory Bias

• Stereotypes affect memories; people notice and remember stereotype-consistent information.

Confirmation Bias

• Stereotypes affect behavior in interviews to confirm beliefs.

Stereotypes: Where do they come from?

• Socialization and social norms (e.g., sex-typed toys, encouragement of activities).

• Social Role Theory: Stereotypes form from observing male and female behavior.

• Role congruity theory: Adhering to gender stereotypes is encouraged; violation is punished.

When are we more Likley to Use ST?

• Lack of motivation, time, or cognitive capacity.

Can Stereotypes be Accurate?

• Kernel of truth hypothesis: Stereotypes can contain some accurate information, though exaggerated.

• People are more likely to rely on individuating information than stereotypes.

Stereotype Threat

• Steele and Aronson (1995): Members of a negatively stereotyped group underperform in stereotype-salient testing environments.

• However, ST can lead to self-defence threat response which prevents negative effect.

Stereotype Threat Findings

• Fewer Pennington \& Heim (2016): Fewer mathematical problems answered under self-as-target and group-as-target stereotype.

• Only when tested alone, effect eliminated when tested in single-sex groups.

Factors Determine ST Use

Looked at their impact and the factors that determine their use (and whether they will lead to errors or not)