The formation of stereotypic beliefs: Further evidence for distinctiveness-based illusory correlations.

Investigated the processes underlying illusory correlations based on the co-occurrence of infrequent stimulus events in 2 experiments with 104 undergraduates. In Exp I, 4 groups of 20 Ss were assigned to 1 of 4 conditions. Group 1 read a series of stimulus sentences describing desirable and undesirable behaviors performed by members of Groups A and B. Group 2 read the same sentences but had a different order of presentation. Group 3 read the sentences and were shown a frequency table summarizing the information they had just read. Group 4 was given only the summary table showing the frequency distribution of desirable and undesirable behaviors for Groups A and B and asked to imagine that they had read sentences. Analysis of Ss' ratings showed that the bias producing the illusory correlation occurred during the encoding of serially presented stimulus items and was not due to biased integration of information at the time of judgment. In Exp II, 24 Ss were used to assess recall of stimulus information. Results show that Ss recalled a higher proportion of items representing the co-occurrence of distinctive stimuli than of the other categories of items. The central role of these items in establishing the illusory correlations was further substantiated by correlational evidence. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)