Stereotypes 2 Flashcards
Stereotype transmission
· Lyons & Kashima (2001) examined the transmission of stereotypes in communication chains
· A few rungs down the chain – inconsistent information disappears but consistent remains intact
· Highlights the ”shared” nature of stereotypes – if we all held different stereotypes, these would counter one another along the chain
· Stereotype consistent:
- Drinks beer
- Goes to parties
- Gets angry
· Stereotype inconsistent:
- Listens to classical
- Buys flowers
Stereotype transmission 2
· As stories get passed on, they become more stereotypical in content
· This is due to:
- Cognitive processes – we remember better stereotype-consistent info, pay more attention to it, etc.
- Social processes – we want to establish common ground with others. So we share info with them that’s likely to be expected.
- We signal we’re on the same page.
· Not just what gets communicated is important, but also how…
Linguistic abstraction
· Linguistic category model (Semin & Fiedler, 1988)
· descriptive action verb (DAV)
- “Beavis hit Butthead”
· interpretative action verb (IAV)
- “Beavis hurt Butthead”
· state verb (SV)
- “Beavis hates Butthead”
· Adjective (Adj)
“Beavis is aggressive”
Linguistic intergroup bias (LIB):
· Examined how language abstraction used to describe in-group and out-group members can transmit & sustain stereotypes
· Context: Ferrara, Italy. Horse racing competition.
· Participants: Supporters of the competing teams
· Task: Describe cartoon scenes:
- desirable and undesirable actions
- Ingroup or outgroup actors shown
· How abstract is the language used?
- e.g. a) drugged… b) damaged… c) detests… d) unfair…
Linguistic intergroup bias:
· More abstract language is used for positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviours
Consequences of LIB:
· Participants read descriptions of behaviours generated in Study 1 (without seeing the cartoons)
- In your opinion, how much information does the phrase reveal about the protagonist?
- In your opinion, how likely is it that the same action or attribute will be repeated in the future?
· Results:
- Increasing level of abstraction = a) more informative about the actor and b) more likely to be repeated.
Language abstraction propagates stereotypes:
· Positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviour is presented as enduring and typical
· Applied to members of a group repeatedly, this leads to stereotyping
Feeling stereotyped:
· Historically, research has focused on documenting/describing stereotypes and the use of stereotypes:
- i.e., the focus is on the stereotyper
· Research subsequently began to consider the effects of stereotypes on the people they refer to:
- i.e., a focus on the stereotyped
· Because stereotypes are a shared, cultural phenomenon, the targets of stereotypes are often aware of how they are seen
- (How) does this affect them?
Stereotype threat:
· Stereotype threat occurs when people believe they might be judged in light of a negative stereotype about their social identity and that they may inadvertently act in some way to confirm a negative stereotype of their group (Logel et al., 2009; Steele, 1997; Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002).
· Awareness that one’s group is negatively stereotyped in a given domain can give rise to concerns about whether the self will be judged against those standards:
- Women and maths
- Some ethnic minorities and academic performance
- Straight men and emotionality
- Social class and intelligence testing
Stereotype threat 2:
· Steele & Aronson (1995) examined performance on an intellectual ability test among Black and White participants with ethnicity made salient or not:
- Ethnicity made salient by asking participants for demographic information immediately before taking (ostensible) verbal ability test
- In non-salient condition this demographic information wasn’t collected
- Does a reminder about ethnicity affect performance on this task?
Stereotype threat - women in stem:
· Spencer, Steele & Quinn (1999)
· Male and female participants selected with the same math ability (e.g., completed calculus course at B grade or higher, self-reported being good at math)
· Participants asked to take a math test that was either described as being diagnostic of gender differences in math or not
· Study 2 – 30 women, 24 men
· Study 3 – 36 women, 31 men
· All university students
Stereotype threat - process:
· Stereotype activation -> physical stress -> performance
· Stereotype activation -> self-monitoring -> performance
· Stereotype activation -> thought suppression -> performance
Stereotype 3:
· Stereotype threat performance decrements can be prevented by
- Affirming the self in another way
- Distancing from aspects of the stereotype that are incompatible with high performance
- Transforming negative aspects into positive aspects
Preventing stereotype threat:
· Aim: to counter the effects of stereotype threat on African American college students’ performance in academic tests
· Participants: Stanford undergraduates, 42 Black, 37 White
· Method: Intervention focused on conceptions of intelligence as malleable (”growth mindset”) or fixed (”fixed mindset”)
· Three conditions:
- Pen Pal – Growth Mindset
- Pen Pal – Control
- No Pen Pal - Control
