Stereotypes L2 Flashcards
Why do we stereotype?
A) Cognitive energy saver - stereotypes save us a lot of time in forming impressions of people and thus help us predict in a complex social world.
B) System justification function - use stereotypes to justify groups places in society, eg homeless dirty thieves deserve to be homeless.
Discuss evidence for stereotypes as a cognitive energy saver.
Macrae - found that participants were better at an audio task when stereotype labels were used in impression formation task.
Discuss evidence for stereotypes as a System justification function.
Jost & Kay - found that when people were exposed to gender stereotypes, were more likely to endorse stereotypical gender roles.
How are stereotypes maintained?
A) Bias interpretation - when we hold stereotypes, we are more likely to perceive things in a way that confirms our current beliefs (ultimate attribution error).
B) Self forfillling prophecy - expectation can make people conform.
Discuss evidence for Bias interpretation.
Johnson & Macrae - participants read sections of a transcript to an interview with a physics student and were told to select the answers he gave to questions asked. found that participants selected “nerd” stereotype confirming answers over disconfirming.
Bartlett & Bliss - shown positive and negative male and female faces, with explenations that were situational or dispositional. found that when explenations were removed, people judged female negative faces to be due to being “emotional” (disposition).
Discuss evidence for Self forfilling prophecy.
Chen & Barg - people played a game of catch phrase with another person, and saw either a neutral or African prime (priming aggression). found that participants were not only more aggressive, but the opposite player reacted to this with aggression even though they had not seen the prime. showing that the stereotype can make people of that group act in a stereotype consistent way.
Define stereotype activation and application
Activation is when the stereotype becomes salient in ones mind, application is when we use this stereotype in our judgments.
Is stereotype Activation automatic? and does prejudice and or goals moderate it?
Yes - Dual process theory states that activation is automatic, but application of stereotypes is controlled by our personal beliefs
(PREJUDICE)
Devine - gave people an impression formation task and found everyone formed stereotypes regardless of prejudice, however could be just a reaction to a hostility prime
kawai & kami - improved Devines methodology and found only high prejudice activated stereotypes, so prejudice is a moderator of stereotype activation.
(GOALS)
Sinclaire - gave people a fake interpersonal test by a black doctor, told they either ‘failed’ or ‘passed’. in a lexical decion task, they were quicker to associate the doctor with black (negative stereotype) than doctor(positive stereotype), in an effort to achieve the goal of making themselves feel better about themselves.
