Post Midterm 1: Feb 14-21 Flashcards
(116 cards)
social category
mental representation of a group of people based on features that characterize that class of people
a) efficient, helpful for navigating social world
b) people can be perceived by many social categories, but they’re not all active in any given moment
social categorization versus stereotype activation versus stereotype application
social categorization:
a) classifying a person based on features you can INFER
stereotype activation:
a) extent to which a stereotype becomes accessible in one’s mind
stereotype application:
a) extent to which a stereotype is used in judging/acting toward members of a target group
categorization occurs first, followed by stereotype activation and then by application
most basic social categories in North America
gender, age, race
these groups are:
- easily observable
- have lots of social meaning
inferred first, quickly, effortlessly, spontaneously
how fast do adults encode race and gender?
within 300 ms
efficiency of social categorization ERP setup
white participants passively viewed images of MALE and FEMALE, BLACK and WHITE people
some categorized the images based on GENDER, others on RACE
ERPs were also tracked during the judgment process
efficiency of social categorization ERP study: ERPs revealed diffs in processing of race and gender within what times?
race: within 100 ms
gender: within 200 ms
we categorize by deciding whether a new stimulus resembles…
known EXEMPLARS from a category
hard to verbalize why certain stimuli are better/worse matches for certain categories
no airtight definition
people that are hard to categorize cause what two things?
- motivation to socially categorize
- discomfort for the perceiver
two groups we often divide people into
- ingroups: groups we identify with and belong to
- outgroups: groups we don’t identify with and don’t belong to
prototypicality
extent to which a person fits the observer’s concept of the essential characteristics of a social category
higher prototypicality:
i) easier, faster, more frequent social categorization
ii) increased stereotyping
prototypicality: death penalty or life in prison?
looked at photos from cases involving White victims and Black defendants in Philadelphia
faces higher in Black prototypicality got death penalty 56% of the time
faces lower in Black prototypicality got death penalty 24% of the time
controlling for: attractiveness, mitigating circumstances, murder severity, defendant SES, victim SES
lab studies: prototypicality and ‘shooter bias’
all faces were Black but ranged from high to low prototypicality
added in the moderator of prototypicality
higher biases in perception for more prototypical faces
most likely to get racial judgments for those high in prototypicality
identities that are more ______ are more likely to be socially categorized and stereotyped
visible
ie. black, 20s or younger, woman, long haired, brown eyed, human
versus invisible
ie. lesbian, conservative, canadian, cat person, likes country music
visible identities aren’t just about what we see with our eyes!
visibility is based on all our sense: vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell
visibility is based on cues in the situation
ie. “who sounds gay” video
the _______ determines what social categories are most salient
situation
and our GOALS determine what we’re looking for
situation and context examples: categories that are most salient
football game:
a) focus: what sports team a person supports (what jersey they’re wearing)
b) race and gender less easily categorized
looking for directions in a foreign city:
a) focus: people who look like they know the directions (locals vs tourists)
subtype
sub-categories within a social category
ie.
old people = warm
grandmothers = very warm
old men = crotchety
“re-fencing”
when counter-stereotypical information is concentrated in a single outgroup member, the person may be perceived to be an isolated exception
“when a fact cannot fit into a mental field, the exception is acknowledged, but the field is fenced in again and not allowed to remain dangerously open”
“re-fencing” example
there are different stereotypes for for “Black people” versus “Black politicians”
Black politicians are considered “exceptions” - they’re a subgroup
why Obama’s presidentship didn’t really change racial attitudes in the US
stereotype content model
all stereotypes form along 2 dimensions: warmth and competence
these dimensions are fundamental to person perception with evolutionary adaptive benefits
a) WARMTH: “will they harm or help me?”
b) COMPETENCE: “can they act on their intentions?”
example questions for rating competence and warmth
competence: “as viewed by society, how competent are members of this group?”
warmth: “as viewed by society, how warm are members of this group?”
competence warmth dimensions and the attitudes they inspire
high competence, high warmth:
ADMIRATION
low competence, low warmth:
CONTEMPT
high competence, low warmth:
ENVY
low competence, high warmth:
PITY
examples of groups/people that are typically associated with admiration, contempt, envy and pity
- admiration: Tom Hanks or ingroup
- contempt: homeless
- envy: the rich
- pity: children
new discovery - approach to see how people spontaneously stereotype
data-driven approach
one set of participants given a “pile” of groups and instructed to ORGANIZE them in space however they wanted
- closer = more similarly associated
another set was instructed to DESCRIBE what those clusters were
used fancy computations to see how block placement maps onto meaning