Do age stereotypes as social role expectations for older adults influence personality development?

Age stereotypes as social role expectations for older adults were hypothesized to influence personality development in later life for specific stereotype domain x personality trait combinations. N = 965 participants aged 50–60 from the Midlife Development in the U.S. (MIDUS) study provided ratings about “people in their late sixties” in four domains at T₁ and completed a personality questionnaire at T₁ and at T₂ ten years later. Personality at T₂ was regressed on age stereotypes and personality at baseline. Age stereotypes in the domains Family/Relationships and Wisdom were related to changes in both Agreeableness and Extraversion over ten years. The findings provide tentative support for the role of positive age stereotypes in personality development in older age.     

Portrayal of the Other in Palestinian and Israeli Schoolbooks: A Comparative Study

The present study examined how Israelis and Palestinians present their narratives related to their conflict in school textbooks used by the state educational system and the ultraorthodox community in Israel and by all Palestinian schools in Palestinian National Territories. The focus was on how each side portrays the Other and their own group. The content analysis was based on a developed conceptual framework and standardized and manualized rating criteria with quantitative and qualitative aspects. The results showed in general that (1) dehumanizing and demonizing characterizations of the Other are rare in both Israeli and Palestinian books; (2) both Israeli and Palestinian books present unilateral national narratives that portray the Other as enemy, chronicle negative actions by the Other directed at the self‐community, and portray the self‐community in positive terms with actions aimed at self‐protection and goals of peace; (3), there is lack of information about the religions, culture, economic and daily activities of the Other, or even of the existence of the Other on maps; (4) the negative bias in portrayal of the Other, the positive bias in portrayal of the self, and the absence of images and information about the Other are all statistically significantly more pronounced in Israeli Ultra‐Orthodox and Palestinian books than in Israeli state books.     

Gender stereotypes in education: Development,consequences, and interventions

Despite many efforts to increase gender fairness in education in recent years, the issue has not yet become obsolete: Gender discrimination still exists and finds expression in unused chances and limited action repertoires for both sexes. This article gives an overview on existing gender differences across the lifespan before providing explanations for these differences from a developmental perspective. We present psychological theories of development dealing with the adoption of gender typical preferences and behaviors in children, and draw the connection to the role parents’ and teachers’ gender stereotypes play in this process. The mechanisms contributing to the perpetuation of gender differences are illustrated via empirical studies. Finally, we offer starting points for interventions to prevent the development of these gender differences, and introduce the REFLECT program which enhances gender competence in secondary school teachers and their students, and a training program for kindergarten teachers as concrete examples of such interventions.     

What's in an accent? General spontaneous biases against nonnative accents: An investigation with conceptual and auditory IATs

Nonnative accents are prevalent in our globalized world and constitute highly salient cues in social perception. Whereas previous literature has commonly assumed that they cue specific social group stereotypes, we propose that nonnative accents generally trigger spontaneous negatively biased associations (due to a general nonnative accent category and perceptual influences). Accordingly, Study 1 demonstrates negative biases with conceptual IATs, targeting the general concepts of accent versus native speech, on the dimensions affect, trust, and competence, but not on sociability. Study 2 attests to negative, largely enhanced biases on all dimensions with auditory IATs comprising matched native–nonnative speaker pairs for four accent types. Biases emerged irrespective of the accent types that differed in attractiveness, recognizability of origin, and origin‐linked national associations. Study 3 replicates general IAT biases with an affect IAT and a conventional evaluative IAT. These findings corroborate our hypotheses and assist in understanding general negativity toward nonnative accents.     

How Accurate Are National Stereotypes? A Test of Different Methodological Approaches

We compared different methodological approaches in research on the accuracy of national stereotypes that use aggregated mean scores of real people's personality traits as criteria for stereotype accuracy. Our sample comprised 16,713 participants from the Central Europe and 1,090 participants from the Baltic Sea region. Participants rated national stereotypes of their own country using the National Character Survey (NCS) and their personality traits using either the Revised NEO Personality Inventory or the NCS. We examined the effects of different (i) methods for rating of real people (Revised NEO Personality Inventory vs. NCS) and national stereotypes (NCS); (ii) norms for converting raw scores into T‐scores (Russian vs. international norms); and (iii) correlation techniques (intraclass correlations vs. Pearson correlations vs. rank‐order correlations) on the resulting agreement between the ratings of national stereotypes and real people. We showed that the accuracy of national stereotypes depended on the employed methodology. The accuracy was the highest when ratings of real people and national stereotypes were made using the same method and when rank order correlations were used to estimate the agreement between national stereotypes and personality profiles of real people. We propose a new statistical procedure for determining national stereotype accuracy that overcomes limitations of past studies. We provide methodological recommendations applicable to a wider range of cross national stereotype accuracy studies. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

When is a compliment not a compliment? Evaluating expressions of positive stereotypes

Unlike negative stereotypes, positive stereotypes are often perceived as admirable qualities, and expressions of such beliefs may be intended as compliments toward group members. Two experiments were conducted to examine how the targets of positive stereotypes evaluate others who express such stereotypic “compliments.” In Study 1, Black participants evaluated a White student who praised the athletic ability of African Americans more negatively than a control condition. In Study 2, Black and White participants watched an interracial interaction that involved the White actor expressing positive stereotypes or a control interaction with no stereotypes. In the positive stereotype condition, Black participants evaluated the White actor and the interaction as a whole more negatively than did White participants, but there were no differences in the control condition. The implications for the perpetuation of interracial distrust and avoidance are discussed.     

Can societal language amendments change gender representation? The case of Norway

This study investigates the influence of stereotypical information and the grammatical masculine on the representation of gender in Norwegian by applying a sentence evaluation paradigm. In this study participants had to decide whether a second sentence containing explicit information about the gender of one of more of the characters (e.g. . . . one of the women . . . ) was a sensible continuation of a first sentence introducing a role name (e.g. The spies came out . . . ). Participants' representations were biased by the stereotypicality of the role names when reading female (e.g. nurses) and male (e.g. pilots) stereotyped role names (replicating findings from the English sample in a previous publication), but male biased when reading neutral role names (replicating findings from the French and the German samples in a previous publication).     

老年歧视的特点、机制与干预

目前在全球范围内普遍存在老年歧视和消极的老化态度。2~3岁的幼儿就已经具有了老化的消极刻板印象, 家庭、社会、媒体和图书资料是为人们提供消极老化态度的主要来源, 而缺少代际接触、缺乏对老化知识的了解是人们形成老年歧视的主要原因。老年歧视会影响个体的行为、自我老化接受度、心理健康状况、生活方式以及择业。了解老化知识信息、讨论老龄化问题, 以及与老年人直接接触等方法可以帮助人们改变老化消极刻板印象, 并且代际接触的质量比数量更重要。目前, 老年歧视的研究横向研究多, 纵向研究少; 特点描述、干预研究多, 机制研究较少; 研究方法多样, 测量工具不同, 导致研究结果不同, 各研究间难以进行比较, 如直接测量主观态度的老年歧视调查, 人们表现出更多的积极态度, 而采用间接方法测量时, 人们则表现出更多的消极态度。我国对老年歧视的研究有待进一步深入和扩展。     

How we think they see us? Valence and difficulty of retrieval as moderators of the effect of meta‐stereotype activation on intergroup orientations

Previous research indicates that meta‐stereotypes are predominantly negative. However, the valence of the meta‐stereotypes may not be the only factor accounting for the detrimental effects associated with their activation. In addition to valence, we propose that the subjective difficulty of retrieving the meta‐stereotype might critically determine whether its activation deteriorates intergroup orientations. An experimental study showed that the effect of the meta‐stereotype activation on the desire to interact with outgroup members was moderated by the interaction between the valence of the meta‐stereotype and its difficulty of retrieval. In particular, the activation of a positive meta‐stereotype deteriorated intergroup orientations when the difficulty of retrieval was high as compared with a condition in which the difficulty of retrieval was low. In sharp contrast, the activation of a negative meta‐stereotype worsened intergroup orientations when the difficulty of retrieval was low as compared with a condition in which the difficulty of retrieval was high.