Stereotype activation and automatic behaviour - tutorial 1

Question 1

moderators of the automatic behaviour effect

Answer 1

Trait activation:

The activation of intermediate representations …

Elderly (category), slow, forgetful (traits)

Effects of stereotype activation on behaviour mediated by trait activation…

Question 2

all traits may be activated

Answer 2

Dijksterhuis, Aarts, Bargh & van Knippenberg (2000)

Relation between past contact, strength of stereotype and stereotype activation on memory

Hypothesis: for some stereotypes, contact makes stereotypical associations stronger (and may make priming effects stronger)

Question 3

Dijksterhuis et al. (2000) study 1

Answer 3

Ps with lots of prior contact with elderly recalled less after elderly prime (compared to pps without contact)

Question 4

Dijksterhuis et al. (2000) study 2

Answer 4

This effect is mediated by associative strength

Ps with lots of contact had strong association between category “elderly” and attribute “forgetfulness”

Strength of this association predicted degree of impairment after elderly prime.

Question 5

Dijksterhuis, Spears, Postmes, Stapel, van Knippenberg & Scheepers (1998) study 1

Answer 5

Category vs. Exemplar prime leads to different priming effect: assimilation / contrast

Prime (category vs. exemplar, associated with intelligence or stupidity)
- Intelligence: “Professor” or “Einstein” Stupidity: “Supermodel ” or “Claudia Schiffer”

Category primed ps showed usual assimilation of prime to behaviour

Ps primed with exemplar showed contrast effects (i.e., performed better if primed with Claudia and worse if primed with Einstein)

Question 6

Dijksterhuis, Spears, Postmes, Stapel, van Knippenberg & Scheepers (1998) study 2

Answer 6

Showed same effects with motor behaviour (“elderly” vs. “Dutch Queen mother”)

Question 7

Dijksterhuis, Spears, Postmes, Stapel, van Knippenberg & Scheepers (1998) study 1

Answer 7

Showed that exemplar prime increases self-reference

Support for idea that comparison with self is invoked by exemplar can cause contrast

Question 8

exceptions

Answer 8

Macrae et al. (1998)

Pps primed with an Exemplar ‘Schumacher’ and performed a counting task

Schumacher is an exemplar, so might predict contrast (i.e., slower performance) but… participants were fast!

Assimilation …. Why??

Only works if the comparison is relevant for the task at hand… (Comparison “I’m a slow driver” not “I’m slow”)

Question 9

conclusions

Answer 9

Some moderators of the “automatic
behaviour effect”

Endogenous and exogenous factors

Trait activation

Prime: Category vs. Exemplar (Assimilation but also contrast effects)