Stereotypes:

1
Stereotypes

• How are they activated and applied?

2
Describe this person

• Who is depicted by each label?
• Babysitter
• Math whiz
• Retired person
• Millionaire
• Student athlete
• How readily are stereotypes activated and applied
  to each group?

3
Stereotype Activation and Application

• How do stereotypes lead to negative outcomes?
• Need Categorization
• The process of simplifying our environment by
  creating categories on the basis of others
  shared characteristics.
• Need Stereotype Knowledge
• The extent to which a person knows about the
  social stereotype of a group.

4
Stereotype Activation and Application

• Need Stereotype Activation
• The extent to which a stereotype is accessible in
  ones mind.
• Need Stereotype Application
• Using a stereotype to judge a member of the
  stereotyped group.

5
Stereotype Activation and Application

• Stereotype activation ? Stereotype application
• Rapid and automatic
• Usually beyond awareness
• Two important factors in this progression
• Stereotypes are most likely to be activated and
  applied to unknown others.
• Peoples behavior is driven by their goals and
  needs.

6
Factors in Categorization

• First step in the stereotype application process.
• Three basic social categories
• Gender, Race, Age
• Some research suggests that race is first
  noticed, then gender.

7
Factor 1 Prototypicality

• Prototypicality the extent to which an
  individual fits an observers concept of the
  essential characteristic of a social category.
• Higher prototypicality leads to faster and easier
  categorization.

8
Factor 2 Situational Influences

• Situational influences can emphasize one category
  over another.
• People may need motivation to subcategorize on
  the basis of non-basic characteristics.
• EX Accuracy motives can do this.
• The context of the encounter can influence
  categorization by drawing attention toward a
  particular category.

9
Factor 3 Prejudice

• Prejudice can play a role in categorization.
• Racially prejudiced people tend to pay more
  attention to race than other characteristics.
• Ingroup Overexclusion
• Prejudiced people tend to overclassify others as
  members of the outgroup.
• Allows them to avoid treating outgroup members as
  though they were part of the ingroup.

10
Factors in Stereotype Activation

• Activation A dormant stereotype becomes active,
  ready for use, and capable of influencing a
  persons thoughts and behaviors.
• 2 types of stereotype activation
• Automatic or Motivated

11
Automatic Activation

• People learn category-stereotype links so
  thoroughly that the stereotype becomes a
  conditioned, unthinking mental response to the
  category.
• Factors that can influence activation process
• Prototypicality facilitates activation
• Context can affect the interpretation of what
  that person is like
• Prejudice facilitates activation
• Cognitive Busyness can disrupt activation due
  to lack of space in working memory

12
Motivated Activation

• Peoples motivations and goals can facilitate or
  inhibit stereotype activation.
• Four Categories of Motives
• Comprehension goals need to form clear
  impressions of others.
• Self-enhancement goals need to see oneself in a
  positive light.
• Social adjustment goals desire to adjust ones
  behavior to fit into situations.
• Motivation to avoid prejudice desire to avoid
  acting in prejudiced way.
• Stereotype relevance is key.
• Content of stereotype must be relevant to goal.
• The motive may not affect stereotype activation
  if the nature of the stereotype does not help to
  fulfill the goal.

13
The Activated Stereotype

• Automatic and motivated activation make it
  difficult to predict whether a stereotype, or
  which stereotype, might be activated in any given
  situation.
• A persons mood can also play a role here.
• People in negative moods saw negative
  characteristics as more negative compared to
  people in a positive or neutral mood.

14
Factors in Stereotype Application

• The more strongly a stereotype has been
  activated, the more likely it will be applied.
• Stereotype application is the default option
  Inhibition requires motivation and ability.
• What affect motivation and ability to inhibit
  stereotype application?

15
Motivation to Inhibit Stereotyping

• Motivation to control prejudice
• The more motivated people are to avoid prejudice,
  the less they use stereotypes.
• Comprehension goals
• If motivated to form accurate impressions of
  other people, individuating information (i.e.,
  information that is specific to the person) is
  used.

16
Motivation to Inhibit Stereotyping

• Cognitive style
• EX need for cognition, causal uncertainty, need
  for closure
• Self-enhancement goals
• Motivation based on threats to self-esteem.
• Social Power
• People with high power are more likely to apply
  stereotypes.

17
Ability to Inhibit Stereotyping

• Factors that interfere with ability to inhibit
• Cognitive resources
• Cognitive busyness inhibits stereotype activation
  but once a stereotype has been activated,
  cognitive busyness facilitates stereotype
  application.
• Moods and emotions
• Happy people and angry people stereotype to a
  greater extent than people in neutral or sad
  moods.

18
Effects of Stereotype Activation

• When a stereotype is applied, it influences the
  persons perceptions of and interactions with
  members of the stereotyped group.
• Four Effects of Activated Stereotypes
• Biased interpretation of behavior
• Biased evaluation of individuals
• Biased memory
• Self-fulfilling prophecies

19
Effect 1 Biased Interpretation of Behavior

• Ambiguous behaviors are interpreted as
  stereotype-consistent behaviors.
• Ex. A slight shove is interpreted as being more
  aggressive when performed by a Black person than
  a White person.
• Stereotypes can also influence interpretation of
  physical characteristics.
• Ex. Estimating height of a man and a woman

20
Effect 2 Biased Evaluation

• When a group stereotype is relevant to an
  evaluation, the group stereotype can affect the
  evaluation of a member of the stereotyped group.
• True for both positive and negative stereotypes.
• Group stereotypes can influence the evaluation of
  cultural artifacts.
• Ex. Rap music vs. country music

21
Effect 3 Biased Memory

• Stereotypes can affect peoples memories about
  social interactions.
• Actions and behaviors tend to be incorrectly
  remembered in more stereotype-consistent terms.
• Source Confusion incorrectly remembering a
  stereotypic behavior as having been performed by
  a member of the stereotyped group when it was
  actually performed by a non-member.
• Assimilation remembering a behavior initially
  presented in general terms as stereotype
  consistent.

22
Effect 4 Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

• Self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a persons
  stereotype leads him/her to behave in ways that
  elicit stereotype-consistent behavior from a
  member of stereotyped group.
• People show behavioral reciprocation in their
  interactions with others.
• People also tend to ask questions whose answers
  will confirm their beliefs about others.
• People treat members of stereotyped and
  nonstereotyped groups differently due to their
  different expectations.