Stereotype Activation vs Application Flashcards
Explain social categorization
- People tend to place others (and themselves) into social groups
- Beliefs develop about members of these groups
- Used to guide future interactions with group members
What are basic social categories?
Information which is easily observable for categorization (ex. gender, race, age)
What is the function of basic social categories?
- The information is used to draw conclusions about a person’s traits, social roles, and physical characteristics
- Important in initial interactions
Explain intersectionality/subtypes
- People can belong to more than one basic category at once (ex. middle-aged white woman, young asian-american man)
- Subtypes can be created to incorporate intersectionality (can be less/more negative)
What is bottom-up processing’s influence on categorization?
Categorization based on the observable characteristics of an individual
What is top-down processing’s influence on categorization?
Categorization based on prior knowledge people have stored in memory and their expectations about interactions
Define prototypicality
Extent to which physical features match basic social category
Explain body cues as bottom-up’s influences on social categorization
- Body size and motion provide cues about group membership
- Ex, body shape as a primary cue for biological sex (women have narrower waists and smaller shoulder width than men)
Explain the categorization of ambiguous faces (bottom-up influences)
- When cues are ambiguous, categorization is slower
- We tend to classify ambiguous faces as members of the minority or socially subordinate group
- These perceptions continue until the majority of their features are stereotypically white
Explain stereotypes as top-down’s influences on social categorization
The content of stereotypes that people have can affect categorisation (ex. gender-atypical vs typical characteristics observed in faces are used to infer sexual orientation (Freeman et al., 2010))
Explain situational influence as top-down’s influences on social categorisation
- The social context can influence categorisation
- Focus on what makes another person look “different” may shift across varying contexts
Explain prejudices attitudes as top-down’s influences on social categorisation
- Prejudiced individuals pay more attention to characteristics consistent with their attitudes and stereotypic beliefs
Examples:
- Racist attitudes = focus on race when categorising
- Sexist attitudes = focus on gender when categorising
Name examples of where people learn stereotypes from
- Parents
- Peers
- The media
- Their own observations of the world
- Role models
- Development/socialization
What are the psychological processes that form stereotypes?
- Social Role Theory
- Illusory Correlations
Explain the Social Role Theory
- People observe the social roles that others occupy -> They associate characteristics of the role with those who occupy it
- Associated with Correspondence Bias
Explain the Illusory Correlation
- People incorrectly link two characteristics
- They overestimate the relationship between two categories when undesirable information stands out
- Inaccurate associations become firmly held
- Based on inaccurate information processing, APE model & Associative Learning
What is the media’s influence on stereotypes?
- The media exposes us to members of majority groups more than minority groups
- Representations of minority groups are stereotypic and negative
- The more media people are exposed to , the more they hold stereotypic beliefs (ex. Race, gender, body size)
What is advertising’s influence on gender stereotypes?
- Women are typically shown in the home (engage in behaviours that convey their dependence and stereotypical gender roles)
- Men are typically shown in professional roles
Define stereotype knowledge
Extent to which a person is familiar with the content of a stereotype
Define stereotype endorsement
Extent to which someone is personally believes the societal stereotype accurately describes a social group
