Stereotype Activation

1
Stereotype Activation

• So people perceive groupness, categorize into
  groups, develop stereotypes. Cognitive
  structures. What happens then?
• Stereotype activation what brings stereotype to
  mind?
• When Im thinking about Group X
• When someone mentions Group X
• When I see/interact with Group X
• All of the above, and more -- Whenever Group X is
  encountered in any way automatically
• Automatic activation of stereotypes.

2
Stereotype Activation

• Automatic and controlled processes
• Automatic activated without awareness,
  unintentional, consumes few cognitive resources
• Controlled intentional, awareness, consumes
  resources
• How does process become automatic?
• Frequency of repetition.
• Example learning to ride bike.
• Stereotyping judging group (member)
  stereotypically can stereotype activation occur
  automatically?

3
Stereotype Activation

• Devine (1989) -- Automatic and controlled
  components of stereotypes. The argument
• Two belief systems cultural stereotype, personal
  beliefs
• Cultural stereotype automatically activated
• Frequent associations in lifetime
• Same for both hi lo prejudice
• Personal beliefs not automatically activated
• Hi lo prejudiced persons differ
• Low prejudice P non-prejudiced responses
  require inhibition of automatically-activated
  cultural stereotype, override with personal
  beliefs (controlled processes).

4
Stereotype Activation

• Devines study to test theory
• Strategy prime cultural stereotype
  subconsciously, determine effects on evaluations
  of target person. Model says should happen for
  both hi lo prejudiced Ps.
• Phase 1 nonconscious priming of stereotype
• Perceptual vigilance task words flashed on
  screen
• 80 or 20 of words stereotypic of blacks
• Phase 2 impression judgments task
• Paragraph about Donald includes ambiguously
  hostile behaviors. Race not indicated.
• Rate Donald on traits hostile/nonhostile
• Ps level of prejudice measured by questionnaire

5
Stereotype Activation
6
Stereotype Activation

• Maybe hi and lo prejudice groups didnt differ in
  stereotypes.
• Follow-up study hi and lo prejudice Ps listed
  thoughts about blacks. Coded as positive or
  negative.
• Thoughts Listed
• Prejudice Positive Negative
• High 1.48 2.06
• Low 2.28 1.10

7
Stereotype Activation

• Understanding these results --
• Devines interpretation
• Cultural stereotype automatically activated
• True for both hi and low prejudice Ps
• Automatic, therefore unconditional

8
Stereotype Activation

• Some questions about interpretation
• Differences in automatic activation (Fazio et
  al., 1995)
• Ps see 12 positive, 12 negative words, indicate
  good/bad meaning RT measured
• Ps see same 24 words, but each preceded by black
  or white face again judge good/bad meaning of
  word does face prime influence RT?
• Prejudice measures facilitation scores rating
  by black experimenter opinion about Rodney King
  riots

9
Stereotype Activation
10
Stereotype Activation
11
Stereotype Activation

• Fazio et al. results
• Facilitation automatic activation
• Attitude measure based on facilitation scores
• Correlated with interaction measure
• Correlated with rating of responsibility for
  violence after Rodney King verdict
• Thus
• Variation in automatic activation
• Extent of activation correlated with prejudice
• Relation to Devine supports automatic
  activation of stereotype, but not same for hi
  lo prejudice

12
Stereotype Activation

• What is automatically primed? (Lepore Brown,
  1997, Rdng 6)
• Distinction between stereotype activation and
  category activation
• Differences between hi and lo prejudice

13
Stereotype Activation

• Activation and application (Gilbert Hixon,
  1991)
• Argument stereotype activation is conditional.
  Requires resources for processing. If so, not
  fully automatic.
• Ps shown word fragments on video.
• POLI_E
• S_Y
• R_CE
• Caucasian or Asian assistant.
• Cognitive load (8-digit number), no load

14
Stereotype Activation

• Results number of stereotypic completions
• Cognitive load
• Assistants Race No Load Load
• Asian 3.82 3.12
• Caucasian 3.00 3.24
• Difference .82 -0.12

15
Stereotype Activation

• Automatic activation
• Can stereotypes be activated automatically? Yes.
• Are they always activated automatically?
  Probably not. Conditional (on having resources).
• Does everyone have the same cultural
  stereotype? People know the prominent
  stereotypes in their culture.
• Is cultural stereotype always activated in both
  hi and lo prejudice people? No. What is
  automatically activated is probably correlated
  with prejudice level.
• Can automatically activated stereotypes influence
  other processes, behavior? Yes.

16
(No Transcript)