Meta-stereotype activation: evidence from indirect measures for specific evaluative concerns experienced by members of dominant groups in intergroup interaction

Six experiments demonstrated that dominant group members readily frame intergroup interaction in terms of how they themselves are evaluated. The authors used indirect measures of meta-stereotype activation to assess dominant group members' inclination to spontaneously consider an out-group member's (ostensible) stereotypic expectations about them. The necessary conditions for meta-stereotype activation were rather minimal, but the potential for evaluation by an out-group member--as opposed to mere exposure to the person--was required. Individual differences involving the importance accorded to social evaluation (public self-consciousness and personal importance of racial attitudes) were associated with meta-stereotype activation, whereas racial attitudes were not. Two studies in which evaluative orientation was manipulated directly demonstrated a link between thinking in terms of how one is viewed and the activation and application of meta-stereotypes.