Stereotypes II Flashcards
Socially shared stereotypes
1- what do we tend to do as a society
2- what are examples of how messages might be changed as they are communicated from one person to the next
1- As a society, we tend to share ideas about what different groups are like
2-
broken telephone- whisper message along line and compare the message of what first vs last person heard. Messages get altered as they are communicated from one person to another
gossiping- as you communicate info about other people you might alter/ exaggerate it
Stereotype transmission
Lyons & Kashima (2001) study
- what did they examine?
- what did they find?
- what does this highlight?
- Lyons & Kashima (2001) examined the transmission of stereotypes in communication chains. By tracing how messages change they can identify what information is obtained or lost in the process.
- 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
Explain in simple terms Lyons & Kashima (2001) study
2 conditions:
stereotype consistent- drinks beer, goes to parties
stereotype inconsistent- listens to classical, buys flowers
- Give pp’s a description of Australian footballer. This would contain stereotypical features (drinks beer) and counter stereotypical facts (buys flowers)
- To start with this message was balanced- would contain some stereotypical elements and some counter stereotypical ones.
- Findings: counter stereotype inconsistent messages were omitted the further along the chain of people you go.
- eg. not mentioning flowers means this information is lost further along the line
- People tend to not forget the stereotypical information yet forget the counter stereotypical information
- So we will end up with a completely stereotypical message.
Stereotype transmission:
1- what happens as stories get passed on?
2- what is this due to?
3- not just ______ gets communicated but also _____
1- As stories get passed on, they become more stereotypical in content
2- 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.
3- Not just what gets communicated is important, but also how
How to establish common ground?
To establish common ground: tell another person what they expect to hear and what they are likely to agree with. (stereotypical information is one example of information that we know others will likely expect and will likely agree with. Because stereotypes are socially shared we have a good idea of what other people may think about members of certain groups)
Explain the linguistic category model (Semin & Fiedler, 1988)
descriptive action verb (DAV)
“Beavis hit Butthead”
- most specific
interpretative action verb (IAV)
“Beavis hurt Butthead”
- more abstract (refers to whole class of actions in this case)
state verb (SV)
“Beavis hates Butthead”
- even more abstract (inference about individuals internal state in this case)
Adjective (Adj)
“Beavis is aggressive”
- most abstract (doesn’t refer to what we observed, make an inference about this character- assuming they will behave this way in other situations)
Linguistic intergroup bias: Maas et al. (1989)
1- examined?
2- context
3- participants
4- task
5- how was abstract language used?
1- Examined how language abstraction used to describe ingroup and out-group members can transmit & sustain stereotypes
2- Context: Ferrara, Italy. Horse racing competition.
3- Participants: Supporters of the competing teams
4- Task: Describe cartoon scenes:
- desirable (someone stopping to help an injured member on other team) and undesirable (drugging horse) actions
- Ingroup or outgroup (competing team) actors shown
5- How abstract is the language used? e.g.
a) drugged… (most specific level)
b) damaged… (slightly more abstract)
c) detests…(state verb)
d) unfair… (most abstract)
Linguistic intergroup bias: Maas et al. (1989)
RESULTS
More abstract language is used for positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviours
Ingroup actor:
drugging a horse
Outgroup actor:
being a fraud
When people were describing actions of ingroup members- they tended to use more abstract language when describing desirable compared to undesirable actions
For outgroup, they are choosing more abstract language to describe undesirable rather than desirable ones.
Consequences of lib: Maas et al. (1989) STUDY 3
Procedure and results
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 explanation
Positive ingroup action→ abstract language → High
Negative outgroup action→ abstract language → High
High dispositional inference- behaviour is seen as typical
Likelihood of repetition
- Positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviour is presented as
enduring and typical - Applied to members of a group repeatedly, this leads to stereotyping
Negative ingroup action→concrete language → Low
Positive outgroup action→ concrete language → Low
Low dispositional inference- behaviour is seen as typical
Likelihood of repetition
Sum- abstract language leads us to make negative generalisations about outgroups and positive generalisations about ingroups and over time these translate into either negative or positive stereotypes
Feeling stereotyped:
1- historically, what has researched focused on
2- what did research subsequently begin to consider?
3- because stereotypes are ______ the targets of stereotypes are often _______
1- Historically, research has focused on documenting/ describing stereotypes and the use of stereotypes:
– i.e., the focus is on the stereotyper
2- Research subsequently began to consider the effects of stereotypes on the people they refer to:
– i.e., a focus on the stereotyped
3- 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:
1- what is stereotype threat?
2- when does stereotype threat occur?
3- what does awareness that ones group is negatively stereotypes give rise to + examples
1- stereotype threat= a drop in performance that happens when people become aware of negative stereotype of their group in a relative domain.
2- 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).
3- 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: Steele & Aronson (1995)
1- what did they examine?
2- what were the different conditions
3- question to consider
1- Examined performance on an intellectual ability test among Black and White participants with ethnicity made salient or not:
2-
- Ethnicity made salient (reminded about relative ethnic groups/ negative stereotypes) by asking participants for demographic information immediately before taking (ostensible) verbal ability test
- In non-salient condition this demographic information wasn’t collected (they were not reminded about it)
3- Does a reminder about ethnicity affect performance on this task?
Stereotype threat: Steele & Aronson (1995)
RESULTS
When pp’s were reminded about ethnicity before test (race prime), black pp’s did not perform as well as white pp’s
When pp’s are not reminded about ethnicity before test (no race prime)- no difference in performance and if anything black pp’s perform better than white pp’s
When ethnic minority groups are reminded about their group membership and associated stereotypes they may be come anxious about how they will perform ect. and this may distract some attention from task and as a result performance suffers
Stereotype threat: women in stem- Spencer, Steele & Quinn (1999)
Procedure
- 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
