Enhancing the impact of counterstereotypic information: Dispositional attributions for deviance.

Counterstereotypic behavior by a single out-group member often fails to change out-group stereotypes because it can be dismissed as an exception to the rule. The impact of the "exception" can be strengthened by making the exception appear to be a typical out-group member and by encouraging a dispositional attribution for the exception's counterstereotypic behavior. These hypotheses were supported in 3 experiments using both artificial and real social categories and both positive and negative stereotypes. When counterstereotypic behavior by a typical member of the out-group was attributed to a stable internal cause, it was effective in moderating out-group stereotypes. However, the same behavior had virtually no impact when it was either performed by an atypical group member or attributed to external causes or to unstable internal causes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When exceptions prove the rule: how extremity of deviance determines the impact of deviant examples on stereotypes

The authors examined how the extent to which counterstereotypic individuals deviate from perceivers' stereotypes affects their impact on these stereotypes and found that extremely deviant group members provoke less stereotype assimilation than do moderately deviant ones. Extremely deviant examples can even provoke boomerang effects, that is, enhance the very stereotype that they violate. When participants whose prior stereotype were moderate or extreme were exposed to moderately or extremely deviant examples, the deviant examples' impact on stereotypes depended both on their extremity and on the extremity of perceivers' prior stereotypes. Boomerang effects were obtained only for extreme-stereotype participants exposed to extremely deviant examples and were mediated by perceptions of the typicality of the deviant examples. Open-ended explanations revealed that the atypicality of extremely deviant examples was used as grounds for dismissing them.     

Illusory correlation and social categorization: Toward an integration of motivational and cognitive factors in stereotype formation.

Investigated the effect of group membership on the processes underlying the formation of group stereotypes. In two studies, Ss were randomly assigned to a majority group, a minority group, or neither group (control). Ss were then presented with 48 short statements in which other in-group and out-group members displayed disirable and undesirable behaviors, with either desirable or undesirable behaviors occurring more frequently. Across these items there was no correlation between group membership and desirability of behavior. In Study 1, measures of covariation perception showed that control Ss formed biased impressions of the group, consistent with a memory-based process of stereotype formation. Group members' perceptions showed little evidence of this bias. In Study 2, group members showed evidence of an in-group bias, with further evidence suggesting that these biased judgments were not dependent upon memory processes. Discussion focuses on the complexity of stereotyping processes introduced by social categorization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal beliefs and cultural stereotypes about racial characteristics.

Social stereotypes may be expressed as personal beliefs about the characteristics of a group or as beliefs about the predominant cultural view of a group. In a study with a full intergroup design, Black and White participants rated Black and White racial groups. Results supported 3 sets of predictions derived from a projection model of stereotyping. First, participants' personal beliefs predicted their ratings of cultural stereotypes even when the group averages of personal beliefs and cultural stereotypes were statistically controlled. Second, interrater agreement in stereotype ratings was substantial for both rating tasks. Third, members of both groups underestimated how favorably their own group was rated by members of their respective out-group. Implications of the findings for the mental organizations of stereotypes, their measurement, and their consequences for social behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of out-group homogeneity and levels of social categorization: Memory for the subordinate attributes of in-group and out-group members.

Explored the hypothesis that in-group members perceive their own group as more variegated and complex than do out-group members (the out-group homogeneity principle). In Exps I and II, 168 men and 171 women estimated the proportion of men or women who would endorse a variety of personality/attitude items that varied on stereotypic meaning (masculinity–femininity) and social desirability (favorable–unfavorable). It was predicted and found that out-group members viewed a group as endorsing more stereotypic and fewer counterstereotypic items than did in-group members. Findings are interpreted as support for the out-group homogeneity principle, and it is argued that since this effect was general across items varying in social desirability, the phenomenon was independent of traditional ethnocentrism effects. Exp III asked 90 members of 3 campus sororities to judge the degree of intragroup similarity for their own and 2 other groups. Again, each group judged its own members to be more dissimilar to one another than did out-group judges. In Exp IV, a theory was proposed suggesting that different "levels of social categorization" are used to encode in- and out-group members' behavior and that this process could account for the perception of out-group homogeneity. It was predicted and found that 109 men and 131 women were more likely to remember the subordinate attributes of an in- than out-group member, which provides some evidence for the theoretical model. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information sampling and group decision making: The effects of an advocacy decision procedure and task experience.

Group discussions tend to focus on information that was previously known by all members (shared information) rather than information known by only 1 member (unshared information). If the shared information implies a suboptimal alternative, this sampling bias is associated with inaccurate group decisions. The present study examines the impact of 2 factors on information exchange and decision quality: (a) an advocacy group decision procedure versus unstructured discussion and (b) task experience. Results show that advocacy groups discussed both more shared and unshared information than free-discussion groups. Further, with increasing experience, more unshared information was mentioned in advocacy groups. In contrast, there was no such increase in unstructured discussions. Yet advocacy groups did not significantly improve their decision quality with experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power in Stereotypically Masculine Domains: A Social Influence Strategy X Stereotype Match Model.

This work examines the hypothesis that stereotypes of groups to which low-power people belong should influence the perceptions and behavior of powerful people only when those stereotypes are both contextually relevant (e.g., women in masculine domains) and provide information of relevance given powerful people's beliefs about the relation between subordinates and goal attainment. Findings across two studies supported predictions. In a masculine domain, when high-power men were attentive to subordinate weaknesses that may produce thwarts to goal attainment, stereotypes of women defined the contextually relevant shortcomings of women, and stereotype-consistent high-power behaviors ensued. In contrast, when powerful men were attentive to subordinate strengths that may enhance goal strivings, stereotypes of women were uninformative (i.e., did not contain information about relevant strengths); female and male employees were responded to and, in turn, performed and reacted similarly. The implications of these findings for theorizing on the relation between power and stereotyping are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of repeated expressions on attitude polarization during group discussions.

Classic explanations of the "group polarization phenomenon" emphasize interpersonal processes such as informational influence and social comparison (Myers & Lamm, 1976). Based on earlier research, we hypothesized that at least part of the polarization observed during group discussion might be due to repeated attitude expression. Two studies provide support for this hypothesis. In Study 1, we manipulated how often each group member talked about an issue and how often he or she heard other group members talk about the issue. We found that repeated expression produced a reliable shift in extremity. A detailed coding of the groups' discussions showed that the effect of repeated expression on attitude polarization was enhanced in groups where the group members repeated each other's arguments and used them in their own line of reasoning. Study 2 tested for this effect experimentally. The results showed that the effect of repeated expression was augmented in groups where subjects were instructed to use each others' arguments compared to groups where instructions were given to avoid such repetitions.… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cultural construction of self-enhancement: An examination of group-serving biases.

Self-serving biases, found routinely in Western samples, have not been observed in Asian samples. Yet given the orientation toward individualism and collectivism in these 2 cultures, respectively, it is imperative to examine whether parallel differences emerge when the target of evaluation is the group. It may be that Asians show a group-serving bias parallel to the Western self-serving bias. In 2 studies, group-serving biases were compared across European Canadian, Asian Canadian, and Japanese students. Study 1 revealed that Japanese students evaluated a family member less positively than did both groups of Canadian students. Study 2 replicated this pattern with students' evaluations of their universities. The data suggest that cultural differences in enhancement biases are robust, generalizing to individuals' evaluations of their groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of diagnosticity in stereotype formation: Perceiving group means and variances.

Three experiments tested the hypotheses that while forming stereotypes of social groups, people abstract the central tendency and variability of different attribute dimensions to determine which ones best differentiate the groups and that more differentiating dimensions are more likely to become stereotypical in the sense of becoming strongly associated with the groups in memory. Supporting these hypotheses, Exp 1 found that, after viewing behaviors performed by members of 2 groups, Ss characterized the groups more in terms of attribute dimensions indicating larger differences between the central tendencies of the groups, and Exp 2 showed that this effect did not occur when Ss formed impressions of only 1 group. Exp 3 found that Ss also characterized groups more in terms of attribute dimensions indicating lower within-group variability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived entitativity, stereotype formation, and the interchangeability of group members.

The authors investigated the effects of perceived entitativity of a group on the processing of behavioral information about individual group members and the extent to which such information was transferred to other group members. The results of 3 experiments using a savings-in-relearning paradigm showed that trait inferences about a group member, based on that member's behavior, were stronger for low entitative groups and for collections of individuals. However, the transference of traits from 1 group member to other members of the group was stronger for high entitative groups. These results provide strong evidence that the perception of high entitativity involves the abstraction of a stereotype of the group and the transfer of that stereotype across all group members. Implications for group impression formation and stereotyping are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maintaining stereotypes in the face of disconfirmation: Constructing grounds for subtyping deviants.

People encountering deviants who violate a stereotype try to maintain the stereotype by subtyping the deviants. They use the deviants' additional attributes to justify subtyping them. Participants read about counterstereotypic targets. Participants who were given no additional information about targets, and so had no grounds for subtyping them, did generalize from them and changed their stereotypes. However, participants who were told that targets had an additional, neutral attribute appeared to use it as grounds for subtyping them; their stereotypes remained unchanged. Participants came to view the neutral attributes as atypical of the stereotype and as associated with deviance, that is, as good reasons for subtyping the deviant. Neutral attributes blocked generalization from truly counterstereotypic targets but not from overly stereotypic ones, suggesting that their effect was due to participants' attempts to explain away individuals who strongly challenge their stereotypes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Training group members to set session agendas: Effects on in-session behavior and member outcome": Correction to Kivlighan, Jauquet, Hardie, Francis, and Hershberger.

Reports an error in "Training group members to set session agendas: Effects on in-session behavior and member outcome" by Dennis M. Kivlighan, Carol A. Jauquet, Anne W. Hardie, Anna Maria Francis and Bernard Hershberger (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1993[Apr], Vol 40[2], 182-187). In Table 4 (p. 186) the values for the means and standard deviations in the second, third, and fourth rows of the "Agenda setting" column were transposed with those in the "No contact" column. The corrected table is presented in this erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1993-26598-001.) Addressed I. D. Yalom's (1983) hypothesis that group members who set session agendas would participate more effectively in group sessions and have enhanced outcomes. The independent variable, agenda, was manipulated by assigning the 24 members of established personal growth groups to 1 of 3 conditions: (1) training in agenda setting, (2) stabilizing interviews, and (3) no-contact control. Group members filled out pre- and posttest measures of enactments of intimate behaviors and attitudes toward these enactments. They also filled out self- and other ratings of in-group enactments of intimate behaviors, and group leaders rated group members' intimate behavior at the end of each group session. Group members who set here-and-now session agendas enacted more in-group intimate behaviors and had better outcomes. Implications of these results and suggestions for group counseling are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fencing off the deviant: The role of cognitive resources in the maintenance of stereotypes.

The role of cognitive resources in stereotype maintenance was examined. It was hypothesized that people's cognitive resources would condition the maintenance of stereotypes by affecting the ability to dismiss inconsistent target information. In Experiment 1, distracted and nondistracted participants formed an impression of a deviant target. As predicted, distraction was associated with less stereotypical views about the group. Experiment 2 replicated this finding using 3 deviant targets and 4 levels of distraction. Results also revealed that the perceived atypicality of the deviants mediated stereotype maintenance. Experiment 3 further showed that stereotypes remained intact only when participants were not distracted and when they had also received neutral information about the target. The discussion focuses on the role of cognitive resources in stereotyping and the effectiveness of exposure to disconfirmation in achieving stereotype change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stereotype distinctiveness: How counterstereotypic behavior shapes the self-concept.

Three experiments examined the relationship between distinctiveness and self-schematicity. Experiment 1 revealed that people were more likely to be self-schematic in domains of strong performance when they felt distinct from family and peers in those domains. Experiments 2 and 3 extended this finding into the arena of stereotypes by demonstrating that people were more likely to be self-schematic in domains of strong performance when their performance was counterstereotypic rather than stereotypic. In particular, African Americans and women were more likely to be schematic for intelligence than Caucasians and men if they performed well academically, whereas Caucasians—especially men—were more likely than African Americans to be schematic for athletics if they performed well athletically. These results suggest that counterstereotypic behavior plays a uniquely powerful role in the development of the self-concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Biases in appraisals of women leaders.

In a variety of group settings, members favor men over women when selecting and evaluating leaders, even when actual leadership behaviors are held constant. Leadership categorization theory (R. B. Lord & K. J. Maher, 1991) and social role theory (A. H. Eagly, 1987) suggest that these biases result from discrepancies between individuals' stereotypes about women and their implicit prototypes of leaders. The authors examined this role-incongruence hypothesis in small groups led by women who adopted a relationship- or task-oriented leadership style. Group members with liberal attitudes regarding women's roles responded positively to both leadership types. Group members with conservative attitudes felt the task-oriented leader was more effective, but they also rated her more negatively on measures of collegiality. These results suggest that individuals' reactions to women leaders are tempered by their expectations about the role of women and men in contemporary society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of variability in category development: Instance- versus abstraction-based stereotypes.

We conducted two experiments to investigate the acquisition and representation of social categories, with an emphasis on the perception of variability of group members. In Experiment 1, subjects learned about a group that was sociable and intelligent and either high or low in variability with respect to these attributes. Differences in the actual variability of group members were reflected in subjects' estimates of variability, in their tendency to generalize from the traits and goals of a single member to the entire group, and in their classification judgments of new instances, which reflected their expectations of group members' future behavior. Memory for instances of the category also played a role in these judgment tasks. In Experiment 2, subjects who first learned about the behaviors performed by group members and then about general characteristics of the group perceived the group as more variable than did those who learned the same information in the reverse order. In both experiments, we manipulated memory for specific behaviors such that either the most extreme behaviors or behaviors at the center of the distribution were most memorable. This manipulation did not affect estimates of perceived variability, suggesting that these were constructed and stored on-line rather than from a retrieved set of category exemplars. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial and behavioral cues in Black and White children's perceptions of ambiguously aggressive acts.

Examined the way in which the interpretation of ambiguous social behavior is influenced by racial stereotypes and cultural differences. 40 Black and 40 White 6th-grade males were shown a variety of ambiguously aggressive behaviors performed by Black and White stimulus figures. As predicted, both Black and White Ss rated these behaviors as more mean and threatening when the perpetrator was Black than when he was White. In contrast, ratings of personal characteristics were in general determined by individual behavior rather than by group stereotypes, although Blacks, whether they were the perpetrator or the recipient of the behaviors, were rated as stronger than their White counterparts. Cultural differences between S groups were apparent in the greater tendency of the White Ss to read threat into ambiguously aggressive behaviors involving no physical contact and to assume that the perpetrators of such behaviors were stronger than the recipients. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)