Lecture 5 Flashcards
What was the study done by Maass et al on stereotype maintenance?
Presented 16 cartoons to members of 2 competing groups. Cartoons had ingroup and outgroup characters performing desirable/undesirable behaviours. Participants were then asked to choose the best description of the scene (out of 4) each at different levels of abstraction
What were the results of Maass et al’s study?
Ingroup positive behaviour and outgroup negative behaviour were both described in abstract terms (implying personal characteristics), opposite described concretely.
What are integral emotions?
Emotions elicited by the group itself-often negative (ex: I hate this group). Might lead to negative consequences for group because the group elicits negative emotions
What are incidental emotions?
Emotions elicited by external factors not related to the group (ex: negative mood due to external factors leads to discriminatory behaviour)
What are the specific types of incidental emotions?
Happiness, sadness, anger, and anxiety
Which incidental emotions are associate with more stereotyping?
Happiness, anger, and anxiety
Which incidental emotion leads to less stereotyping?
Sadness
Why is happiness associated with increased stereotyping?
Results in less cognitive effort for thinking, but it takes more cognitive effort to not stereotype. Happiness results in us not wanting to think about our environment and feeling as if there’s no need to be effortful.
Why do anxiety and anger result in increased stereotyping?
They are distracting emotions and are strongly physiological which leads to an increased internal focus-too distracted to not stereotype
Why does sadness lead to decreased stereotyping?
Leads to detail-oriented and careful thinking due to the feeling that something in the environment is wrong. Must also be highly motivated to not stereotype
How do we induce emotions in a lab setting?
Using music because it won’t involve confounding imagery. Instrumental music ensures no confounds as well
What was Small and Lerner’s experiment on incidental emotions?
Incidental emotions and welfare assistance-induced either anger, sadness, or neutral emotions by asking participants to write down 5 things that made them feel this emotion and describe one in detail. The DV was whether people wanted to increase or decrease assistance in a welfare case
What were the results of Small and Lerner’s study?
Neutral condition: Assistance recommended was the same as what they already received
Sadness: More assistance offered
Anger: less assistance offered
Both significantly differed from neutral and each other.
What happened in Small and Lerner’s study when they introduced a cognitive load manipulation?
No difference between sadness and anger-sad people didn’t recommend more money.
What are the conclusions from Small and Lerner’s study?
Emotions lead us to be better or worse at environmental information processing
