Competition in stereotyped domains: Competition,social comparison,and stereotype threat

The current work examines a novel and specific way in which competition can hurt the performance of negatively stereotyped individuals: by evoking stereotype threat. In four experiments, we demonstrate that women's underperformance in math when primed with competition was due to feeling worried about confirming negative stereotypes about women's math ability (i.e., stereotype threat), that the activation of negative performance stereotypes for women primed with competition was due to increased group‐level social comparisons (i.e., comparing the self with men and women), and that priming competition led men to perform more poorly than women in a domain where they are negatively stereotyped (i.e., verbal ability). This research suggests that priming people with competition in contexts where they are negatively stereotyped leads to greater social comparison, activation of negative stereotypes, and concern about confirming these stereotypes, thereby decreasing stereotyped individuals' performance in the stereotyped domain. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mind your mannerisms: Behavioral mimicry elicits stereotype conformity

Four studies demonstrate that the affiliative responding that is typically encouraged by mimicry can be manifested in conformity to shared gender and racial stereotypes. In Studies 1 and 2, mimicry by a confederate led participants to perform in accordance with stereotypes about their race and gender on a math task. Studies 3 and 4 tested the boundary conditions of mimicry's influence: in Study 3, mimicry elicited stereotype-consistent math performance only among participants who believed in stereotypes about their group that could drive others' expectancies. Study 4 established that the mimicry must occur in the context of affiliation for it to elicit stereotype-consistent behavior, highlighting the important moderating role of affiliation motivation in this phenomenon. In sum, these findings suggest that mimicked individuals are more conforming to the stereotyped expectancies that they believe others hold for them, which suggests not only a potential negative consequence of mimicry but also a subtle manner through which stereotypes may be perpetuated.     

Self-stereotyping in the context of multiple social identities

This research examines self-stereotyping in the context of multiple social identities and shows that self-stereotyping is a function of stereotyped expectancies held in particular relationships. Participants reported how others evaluated their math and verbal ability and how they viewed their own ability when their gender or ethnicity was salient. Asian American women (Experiment 1) and European Americans (Experiment 2) exhibited knowledge of stereotyped social expectancies and corresponding self-stereotyping associated with their more salient identity. African Americans (Experiment 3) exhibited some knowledge of stereotyped social expectancies but no corresponding self-stereotyping. Correlational evidence and a 4th experiment suggest that self-stereotyping is mediated by the degree to which close others are perceived to endorse stereotypes as applicable to the self.     

Gender stereotyping in young children: Evidence to support a concept-learning approach

Two studies on early gender stereotyping based on a concept-learning approach were conducted. With the use of a forced choice format, study 1 found that both 2 1/2 and 3 1/2-year-old children showed significant and equal stereotyping of both gender-labeled infants and animals. These findings suggest both early learning and generalization of gender stereotypes. In study 2, although 5-year-olds stereotyped more strongly than 3-year-olds, both groups stereotyped others significantly more than themselves. When attributing traits to themselves, children chose the more socially desirable rather than the gender-traditional attributes. These findings are discussed in terms of the acquisition of gender stereotypes as a process distinct from the necessity for related self-schemas.The authors would like to express their appreciation to Pam Newman, Laurie MacGavin, Rebeccah Warren, Sheryl Wilson, Gail McCollum, and Cheryl Hessen for their invaluable assistance in running subjects for these studies.     

Stereotypes as Pseudocontingencies

We introduce a heuristic called pseudocontingencies (PCs) as an alternative account of various stereotyping phenomena. PCs give rise to the expectation that attributes are correlated based solely on asymmetries in attribute base rates. Attributes that are encountered frequently and attributes that are encountered rarely are perceived to be correlated with each other. Such differences in information densities are typical of many stereotyped targets, including the self vs. others, the in-group vs. out-groups and majority vs. minority groups. Evidence is reviewed for PCs underlying illusory correlations, confirmation biases, gender stereotypes, Simpson’s paradox, and in procedures used for implicit stereotype measurement. PCs are shown to predict specific patterns of self-enhancement and self-depreciation, the effects of intergroup contact on in-group biases and the readiness to infer stereotypes from aggregated “big-data”. Although PCs can lead to seriously flawed stereotypic expectations, they afford an efficient and possibly adaptive inference strategy.     

Contrast from social stereotypes in automatic behavior

The activation of social stereotypes can influence behavior outside of conscious awareness. It has been argued that while priming social stereotypes leads to behavioral assimilation, priming exemplars leads to behavioral contrast. Extending this theorizing, we argue that the activation of social stereotypes can also result in automatic behavioral contrast if a comparison of the self to the stereotyped group is provoked. This hypothesis is tested with speed and intellectual performance as behavioral measures. In a first study, we show that categorizing perceived others as outgroup members leads to behavioral contrast from their stereotype. The second study shows that subliminally priming the self during the activation of a stereotype to which the self does not belong leads to automatic behavioral contrast from the stereotype. These findings reverse previously found assimilation effects of social stereotype priming. Social comparison processes are discussed as a possible mediator of the results.     

Implicit volition and stereotype control

Goals are mental representations that vary in accessibility and operate within goal systems. The implicit nature of goal activation and pursuit is shown here to make goals effective not merely at overturning the influence of an activated stereotype on how people respond to members of stereotyped groups, but effective at implicitly controlling the activation of stereotypes in the first place. In a set of experiments examining chronic egalitarian goals, faces and names of members of stereotyped groups presented as target stimuli led to the inhibition of stereotypes, as well as to the heightened accessibility of egalitarian goals. A separate set of experiments illustrate a similar ability of individuals to control stereotype activation when egalitarian goals are temporarily triggered within a context, rather than being chronically held. Goals that require one to inhibit stereotypic associations to a target can lead to the intended, yet implicit, control of stereotype activation, even when one is not aware the goal is active or being pursued or being regulated.     

Stereotypes as justifications of prejudice

Three experiments investigate how stereotypes form as justifications for prejudice. The authors created novel content-free prejudices toward unfamiliar social groups using either subliminal (Experiment 1, N = 79) or supraliminal (Experiment 2, N = 105; Experiment 3, N = 130) affective conditioning and measured the consequent endorsement of stereotypes about the groups. Following the stereotype content model, analyses focused on the extent to which stereotypes connoted warmth or competence. Results from all three experiments revealed effects on the warmth dimension but not on the competence dimension: Groups associated with negative affect were stereotyped as comparatively cold (but not comparatively incompetent). These results provide the first evidence that-in the absence of information, interaction, or history of behavioral discrimination-stereotypes develop to justify prejudice.     

Stereotype threat: When minority members underperform

This chapter provides a brief overview of research on stereotype threat, and considers whether this phenomenon is specific to minority groups (defined as low status groups), or whether similar deficits may also be observed in groups that generally enjoy a high status in society but that are negatively stereotyped in a specific domain. We then review a number of individual difference variables that moderate stereotype threat and that may explain why some people are highly vulnerable to stereotype activation while others appear to resist its influence. Next, we consider what processes drive stereotype threat, including anxiety, intrusive thoughts, shift towards caution, expectancy, and disengagement. In the subsequent section we compare the stereotype threat model with other theories dealing with the link between stereotypes and performance, in particular self-fulfilling prophecy and the expectancy value model. The final sections of the chapter concern areas of application in which stereotype threat may account for performance gaps between social groups, and how to prevent it.     

Perceived consensus influences intergroup behavior and stereotype accessibility

Past research has demonstrated the powerful influence other people have on the thoughts and behaviors of individuals. However, the study of intergroup attitudes has focused primarily on the influence of direct exposure to out-group members as determinants of stereotypes and prejudice. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that learning that others share one's intergroup beliefs influences intergroup attitudes and behavior as well as stereotype representation. Experiment 1 demonstrated that learning that one's beliefs are shared or not shared with others influences attitudes, behavior, and the strength of the attitude-behavior relationship. Experiment 2 demonstrated a potential mechanism for such effects by showing that learning about whether others share one's stereotypes influences the accessibility of those stereotypes and related stereotypes.     

Do adolescents’ self-concepts moderate the relationship between STEM stereotypes and motivation?

Professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are often stereotyped as geniuses and nerds (e.g., socially awkward). These stereotypes may demotivate some individuals from pursuing or remaining in STEM. However, these beliefs may enhance motivation among individuals who feel that they fit in with the stereotype. Guided by balanced identity theory and expectancy-value theory, our study investigated the effect of trait-based stereotypes about people in STEM among a sample of 256 U.S. high school students (M_age?=?16, 59% girls, 65% Asian, 15% Latinx, 10% White). We assessed students’ trait-based nerd and genius stereotypes about STEM and related self-concepts as well as their STEM motivation (competence and value beliefs). Consistent with balanced identity theory, the effect and direction of endorsing nerd-genius stereotypes was moderated by a student’s own self-concepts. Endorsing stereotypes was negatively related to motivation—but only among those low in the related self-concept. Among those high in related self-concepts (e.g., high in nerd-genius self-concept), endorsing STEM stereotypes (e.g., STEM is for geniuses) was unrelated to STEM motivation. Girls, underrepresented students of color, and potential first-generation college students may especially be negatively affected by the stereotypes due to a greater likelihood that these stereotypes will be incongruent with their self-concepts. Thus, trait-based stereotypes about people in STEM may perpetuate current gaps in STEM.

     

System-justifying ideologies moderate status = competence stereotypes: roles for belief in a just world and social dominance orientation

High-status outgroups tend to be stereotyped as competent, while low-status groups tend to be stereotyped as incompetent. These stereotypes provide legitimacy to hierarchical social systems. However, research to date has tended to focus on the socio-structural correlates and cross-cultural stability of these stereotypes, emphasising universality over malleability. The current research demonstrates that, although strong, the association between status and competence, but not status and warmth, is moderated by ideological beliefs and attitudes towards inequality. In two studies, participants high in belief in a just world (BJW) or social dominance orientation (SDO) were more likely than those low in BJW or SDO to view a high-status target as more competent than a low-status target. Findings support the view that status stereotypes justify social inequalities, and demonstrate that they are sensitive to ideological orientations. Implications for theory and research on status and power stereotypes are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

人如其食：食物性别刻板印象及对人物评价的影响

食物在社会生活中发挥着重要作用, 具有性别文化意义。两个研究分别探索了外显与内隐食物性别刻板印象的存在及其对人物评价的影响。研究1采用提名法、自我报告法和语义启动范式检验外显和内隐食物性别刻板印象的存在, 结果表明被试均持“男性偏好男性化食物, 女性偏好女性化食物”的外显食物性别刻板印象, 女性被试持有内隐食物性别刻板印象。研究2采用情境实验法和内隐关系评估程序进一步测量被试对食物性别刻板不一致目标人物在热情和能力维度上的评价, 结果发现人们对食物性别刻板不一致男性在热情维度的内隐评价更加积极。     

Stereotypes about children with traditional and nontraditional gender roles

Two studies were done to assess different aspects of gender stereotypes about traditional and nontraditional girls and boys. In Study 1, 81 undergraduates (57 females, 24 males; 88% Caucasian, 12% Asian) rated the typicality and desirability of 25 personality traits and behaviors for boys and girls. Analyses showed that this sample believed that typical girls and boys differ on 24 out of the 25 behaviors and traits. There were fewer differences when they rated the desirability of the characteristics for each sex. In Study 2, 154 undergraduates (97 females, 57 males, 82% Caucasian, 18% Asian) estimated the percentage of occurrence of 26 traits and behaviors in traditional and nontraditional girls and boys (i.e., tomboys and sissies). These estimates were used to determine two aspects of stereotypes: the characteristics that are perceived to occur most often in a group and the characteristics that are particularly distinctive for a group. Again, stereotypes of girls and boys were found to be extensive. Percentage estimates, however, illustrated that stereotypes are probabilistic in that many boys and girls are believed to have both masculine and feminine characteristics. Stereotypes of nontraditional children were compared to stereotypes of traditional children. Analyses showed that tomboys were stereotyped similarly to traditional boys but sissies were not stereotyped similarly to traditional girls. Instead, the sissy stereotype was found to be very narrow. The advantage of using a variety of assessments methods is discussed.     

French Children’s Awareness of Gender Stereotypes About Mathematics and Reading: When Girls Improve Their Reputation in Math

Since 2000, surveys on academic achievement show gender inequalities in favor of girls in the school setting. The aim of the present study was to examine if gender stereotypes about academic abilities that are usually considered as fully demonstrated in the literature have to be updated. Three hundred ninety-eight French fifth graders from a medium-sized provincial town answered a questionnaire designed to examine, both with direct and indirect measures, if they hold different gender stereotypes concerning mathematics and reading depending on target’s age (children vs. adults). As expected, results showed that participants, regardless of their gender, were aware of a math-ability stereotype favorable to men when the stereotyped targets were adults. When the stereotyped targets were children and young adolescents, the math-ability stereotype was less clear. Participants believed that people think that girls succeed as well as boys in math. Concerning reading-ability, participants reported the “usual” stereotype favorable to females, regardless of the stereotyped target’s age (child or adult). Together these results suggest that academic gender stereotypes have to be reconsidered. The math-ability stereotype targeting children and favorable to both genders seems to show an improvement of the French girls’ reputation in mathematics. Moreover, the reputation of French boys in this domain seems to be poorer than reported in previous research.     

Implicit and Explicit Occupational Gender Stereotypes

This study was designed to compare implicit and explicit occupational gender stereotypes for three occupations (engineer, accountant, and elementary school teacher). These occupations represented the end points and middle of a masculine–feminine continuum of explicit occupational gender stereotypes. Implicit stereotypes were assessed using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which is believed to minimize self-presentational biases common with explicit measures of occupational gender stereotypes. IAT results for the most gender stereotyped occupations, engineer (masculine) and elementary school teacher (feminine), were comparable to explicit ratings. There was less agreement with less stereotyped comparisons. Results indicated that accounting was implicitly perceived as more masculine than explicit measures indicate, which calls into question reports of diminishing gender stereotyping for such occupations.     

On the Control Over Stereotype Activation and Stereotype Inhibition

Stereotypes are known to influence how we think about (judge, feel, plan, attend to, remember), and act toward, others. Stereotyping is typically described as pervasive in society for a variety of reasons, one of which being that the cognitive processes that initiate stereotyping occur effortlessly, without conscious intent, and without awareness. That is, upon encountering members of stereotyped groups, we ‘uncontrollably’ have stereotypes of those groups retrieved and held accessible in a state of perceptual readiness. This occurs without our knowledge or awareness of the stereotype’s ‘primed’ status, and thus our lacking awareness of its potential to influence how we respond. The current article explores various ways this implicit process of stereotype activation is controlled. Despite the fact that stereotype activation happens with ease, and outside of awareness, control processes also operate with ease, and outside of awareness. The review illustrates a variety of ways in which a stereotype may not be triggered (and thus downstream stereotyping of a person controlled) upon encountering a person. The dominant response to a person, stereotypic or not, is determined by the goals the individual perceiver has upon entering the interpersonal encounter. Many goals relevant to interpersonal interaction promote stereotyping. However, stereotype promotion is a form of stereotype control, and if control can be exhibited in the form of promotion, it should also be demonstrable in the form of prevention. Indeed, goals that are incompatible with stereotyping yield dominant responses to having encountered a member of a stereotyped group that does not involve activation of, and may involve inhibition of, stereotypes.     

Activation and Use of Racial Stereotypes in Personnel Decisions: A Test of Two Theories1

This research tested contrasting predictions about activation and use of racial stereotypes in personnel decisions. Devine's (1989) theory' holds that stereotyped inferences should be apparent when decisions are time constrained and judges have little opportunity to suppress automatically activated stereotypes. Gilbert & Hixon's (1991) busy-ness model implies that stereotypes are unlikely to be activated and to influence the decisions of judges unless these decisions are not time-constrained. Participants were allowed 90 s or 180 s to evaluate Black and White candidates for football managerial positions requiring aggressiveness (linebacker coach) or cognitive prowess (general manager). Only when decisions were not time constrained did participants show stereotyped judgments by favoring Whites for the general manager's position and overranking Blacks for linebacker coach. This pattern was consistent with Gilbert & Hixon's busy-ness model and contrary to Devine's theory of automatically activated stereotypes.     

On the Role of Group Membership in Stereotype-Based Performance Effects

Group memberships serve an important function in our lives. They help define who we are; thus, they are intimately involved in our daily functioning. But in certain situations, our group memberships may have a particularly profound influence on the way we behave, such as in situations where stereotypes apply. In this article, I examine the role group membership plays in distinguishing between different performance effects that are based on stereotypes associated with our group memberships. Knowing the role that group memberships play in such effects can refine existing theory and research while also providing insight into methods for combating the adverse effects of stereotypes on behavior. Accordingly, I review a number of stereotype-based performance effects that involve both negative and positive stereotypes as well as describe how group membership moderates these effects. I then discuss how stereotyped concerns associated with our group memberships can clarify the distinction between stereotype threat and priming effects. In the final portion of this article, I highlight how learning about a counter-stereotypic person from one's group can serve to reduce the negative effects of stereotypes on performance.     

Identity Cues: Evidence From and for Intra‐Individual Perspectives on Positive and Negative Stereotyping1

Traditional stereotyping research has adopted an intergroup perspective: Comparisons are made between ways in which targets belonging to different social groups are stereotyped. We adopt an intra‐individual perspective and examine how a single target, belonging to multiple social groups, is stereotyped differently based on identity cues. Participants interacted with a partner (a research confederate) in a series of e‐mail exchanges. The partner used e‐mail addresses that subtly cued either the partner's gender identity, the partner's ethnic identity, or neither identity. This subtle identity cue led participants to stereotype their partners in very different ways, biasing recall in directions consistent with the positive and negative stereotypes associated with the different identities cued. Applications of the findings to the problems that stereotypes create are discussed.