Likeness
When Distrust Frees Your Mind: The Stereotype-Reducing Effects of Distrust
Ann-Christin Posten & Thomas Mussweiler
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Trust and distrust are essential elements of human interaction, yet little is known about how trust and distrust shape how we perceive others. To close this gap, we examined how trust versus distrust influences stereotyping. Recent research has suggested that distrust fosters the use of cognitive nonroutine strategies. Building on these findings, we investigated the hypothesis that - contrary to intuition - it might be distrust rather than trust that reduces stereotyping. Supporting this hypothesis, engaging in an untrustworthy (vs. trustworthy vs. trust-unrelated) interaction resulted in less stereotypic evaluations in an unrelated person-judgment task (Experiment 1). Replicating the stereotype-reducing effect, 2 different distrust (vs. trust) priming manipulations led to less stereotypic person judgments in 2 different stereotyping paradigms (Experiments 2A and 2B). We hypothesized that a comparison focus on dissimilarities - a nonroutine mechanism that works against stereotyping - causes this stereotype-reducing effect. In line with this notion, distrust led to a more pronounced dissimilarity-focus (Experiment 3), and the stereotype-reducing effect of distrust diminished when this dissimilarity-focus was impaired (Experiment 4). Our findings suggest that distrust induces a dissimilarity-focus that in turn reduces stereotyping.
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Adam Galinsky et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We present a theoretical model of reappropriation - taking possession of a slur previously used exclusively by dominant groups to reinforce another group's lesser status. Ten experiments tested this model and established a reciprocal relationship between power and self-labeling with a derogatory group term. We first investigated precursors to self-labeling: Group, but not individual, power increased participants' willingness to label themselves with a derogatory term for their group. We then examined the consequences of such self-labeling for both the self and observers. Self-labelers felt more powerful after self-labeling, and observers perceived them and their group as more powerful. Finally, these labels were evaluated less negatively after self-labeling, and this attenuation of stigma was mediated by perceived power. These effects occurred only for derogatory terms (e.g., queer, bitch), and not for descriptive (e.g., woman) or majority-group (e.g., straight) labels. These results suggest that self-labeling with a derogatory label can weaken the label's stigmatizing force.
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Sarah Townsend et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although higher social class carries mental and physical health benefits, these advantages are less robust among members of racial and ethnic minority groups than among European Americans. We explore whether differential reactions to discrimination may be a factor in explaining why. Working-class and middle-class Latino American women engaged in an evaluative interaction with a European American woman who rejected them and held either prejudiced or unprejudiced attitudes. We examined how participants responded to this rejection by measuring neuroendocrine reactivity, executive functioning, and the affective content of their verbal responses during the interaction. Among middle-class Latinas, rejection from a prejudiced, compared to unprejudiced, out-group member was associated with less adaptive stress responses, greater cognitive depletion, and more feelings of uncertainty. In contrast, among working-class Latinas, neuroendocrine, cognitive, and affective responses were similar across the two sources of rejection. Results suggest that social class is an important moderator of responses to discrimination.
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Bobby Cheon et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Perceived threat from outgroups is a consistent social-environmental antecedent of intergroup bias (i.e. prejudice, ingroup favoritism). The serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) has been associated with individual variations in sensitivity to context, particularly stressful and threatening situations. Here, we examined how 5-HTTLPR and environmental factors signaling potential outgroup threat dynamically interact to shape intergroup bias. Across two studies, we provide novel evidence for a gene-environment interaction on the acquisition of intergroup bias and prejudice. Greater exposure to signals of outgroup threat, such as negative prior contact with outgroups and perceived danger from the social environment, were more predictive of intergroup bias among participants possessing at least one short-allele (vs. two long-alleles) of 5-HTTLPR. Furthermore, this gene-environment interaction was observed for biases directed at diverse ethnic and arbitrary-defined outgroups across measures reflecting intergroup biases in evaluation and discriminatory behavior. These findings reveal a candidate genetic mechanism for the acquisition of intergroup bias, and suggest that intergroup bias is dually inherited and transmitted through the interplay of social (i.e., contextual cues of outgroup threat) and biological mechanisms (i.e., genetic sensitivity towards threatening contexts) that regulate perceived intergroup threats.
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Meaning in music: Deviations from expectations in music prompt outgroup derogation
Paul James Maher, Wijnand Adriaan Pieter Van Tilburg & Annemieke Johanna Maria Van Den Tol
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Encountering stimuli that violate expectations can elicit compensatory behavior. One notable result of such compensatory responses is the derogation of outgroups. The present research investigated for the first time if music that defies expectations fosters the derogation of outgroups. In Study 1, exposure to unconventional relative to conventional music increased wagers placed in favor of an ingroup winning a hypothetical rugby match against an outgroup. In extension of this finding, Study 2 revealed that unconventional music led to lower allocated budgets for support of a minority. Study 3 confirmed that music led to harsher punishments of a hypothetical outgroup offender after being exposed to an unconventional edit of a music piece relative to its regular version. The consequences of these findings are discussed in relation to intergroup relations and theories of meaning maintenance.
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Nicolas Geeraert
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, September 2013, Pages 1173-1183
Abstract:
A known consequence of stereotype suppression is post-suppressional rebound (PSR), an ironic activation of the suppressed stereotype. This is typically explained as an unintended by-product from a dual-process model of mental control. Relying on this model, stereotype rebound is believed to be conceptual. Alternative accounts predict PSR to be featural or procedural. According to the latter account, stereotype rebound would not be limited to the suppressed social category, but could occur for a target from any social category. The occurrence of procedural stereotype rebound was examined across five experiments. Suppression of one particular stereotype consistently led to rebound for social targets belonging to the same or a different stereotype in an essay-writing task (Experiments 1-3) and led to facilitation in recognition of stereotype-consistent words (Experiment 4). Finally, stereotype suppression was shown to impact on assessments of stereotype use but not on heuristic thinking (Experiment 5).
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Steve Loughnan et al.
Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three studies examined whether animality is a component of low-SES stereotypes. In Study 1a-c, the content of "white trash" (USA), "chav" (UK), and "bogan" (Australia) stereotypes was found to be highly consistent, and in every culture it correlated positively with the stereotype content of apes. In Studies 2a and 2b, a within-subjects approach replicated this effect and revealed that it did not rely on derogatory labels or was reducible to ingroup favoritism or system justification concerns. In Study 3, the "bogan" stereotype was associated with ape, rat, and dog stereotypes independently of established stereotype content dimensions (warmth, competence, and morality). By implication, stereotypes of low-SES people picture them as primitive, bestial, and incompletely human.
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Reactions to gender egalitarian men: Perceived feminization due to stigma-by-association
Laurie Rudman, Kris Mescher & Corinne Moss-Racusin
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, September 2013, Pages 572-599
Abstract:
Gender egalitarian men are vital for women's progress, yet attitudes toward and beliefs about them are underinvestigated. In three experiments, women liked gender egalitarian men more so than men did, but both genders stigmatized them as more feminine, weak, and likely to be gay, compared with control male targets. This was true even when the gender egalitarian was an actual presidential candidate for the American Psychological Association (Experiment 3). We examined whether stigmatization was due to (a) gender egalitarians' presumed affiliations with women and/or gay men (stigma-by-association); (b) the gay male feminist stereotype; or (c) a threat to men's gender identity. Results supported stigma-by-association, but only for affiliations with women (not gay men). The gay male feminist stereotype was robust, but did not account for stigmatization, and men's reactions to male gender egalitarians were independent of their gender identity. Implications of these findings for gender equality are discussed.
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Simone Ispa-Landa
Sociology of Education, July 2013, Pages 218-233
Abstract:
Relational theories of gender conceptualize masculinity and femininity as mutually constitutive. Using a relational approach, I analyzed ethnographic and interview data from male and female black adolescents in Grades 8 through 10 enrolled in ''Diversify,'' an urban-to-suburban racial integration program (n = 38). Suburban students (n = 7) and Diversify coordinators (n = 9) were also interviewed. All the bussed students, male and female, were racially stereotyped. Yet as a group, the Diversify boys were welcomed in suburban social cliques, even as they were constrained to enacting race and gender in narrow ways. In contrast, the Diversify girls were stereotyped as ''ghetto'' and ''loud'' and excluded. In discussing these findings, the current study extends previous research on black girls' ''loudness,'' identifies processes of racialization and gendering within a set of wealthy suburban schools, and offers new theoretical directions for the study of racially integrated settings.
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Tamar Saguy et al.
European Journal of Social Psychology, June 2013, Pages 292-298
Abstract:
In this research, we investigated the psychological sense of feeling wronged as an advantaged group member. By feeling wronged, we refer to advantaged group members who experience themselves being unfairly accused for harboring racial or ethnic biases. Drawing on research on moral threat to the ingroup, we predicted that feeling wronged would lead advantaged group members to legitimize the social hierarchy they are benefiting from, which in turn can undermine their intentions to redress group-based inequality. Study 1 demonstrated that to the extent advantaged group members (both in Italy and the USA) felt wronged predicted their perceptions of group-based disparities as more legitimate, which in turn weakened their intentions to act for promoting social change. Study 2 replicated the effect using an experimental manipulation of unfair blame among a sample of Israeli-Jews. Results are discussed in light of relevant work on competitive victimhood and inverted relative deprivation.
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Competition and Social Identity in the Workplace: Evidence from a Chinese Textile Firm
Takao Kato & Pian Shu
Harvard Working Paper, July 2013
Abstract:
We study the impact of social identity on worker competition by exploiting the exogenous variations in workers' origins and the well-documented social divide between urban resident workers and rural migrant workers in large urban Chinese firms. We collect data on weekly output, individual characteristics, and coworker composition for all weavers in an urban Chinese textile firm between April 2003 and March 2004. The firm's relative performance incentive scheme rewards a worker for outperforming her coworkers. We find that a worker does not act on the monetary incentives to outperform coworkers who share the same social identity, but does aggressively compete against coworkers with a different social identity. Our results highlight the important role of social identity in overcoming self-interest and enhancing inter-group competitions.
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Social Categories as Markers of Intrinsic Interpersonal Obligations
Marjorie Rhodes & Lisa Chalik
Psychological Science, June 2013, Pages 999-1006
Abstract:
Social categorization is an early-developing feature of human social cognition, yet the role that social categories play in children's understanding of and predictions about human behavior has been unclear. In the studies reported here, we tested whether a foundational functional role of social categories is to mark people as intrinsically obligated to one another (e.g., obligated to protect rather than harm). In three studies, children (aged 3-9, N = 124) viewed only within-category harm as violating intrinsic obligations; in contrast, they viewed between-category harm as violating extrinsic obligations defined by explicit rules. These data indicate that children view social categories as marking patterns of intrinsic interpersonal obligations, suggesting that a key function of social categories is to support inferences about how people will relate to members of their own and other groups.
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Ella Ben Hagai et al.
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, August 2013, Pages 295-310
Abstract:
Clashing narratives and power asymmetry can serve as obstacles to promoting reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. In this study, we examine transcripts from a contact encounter among Israeli, Palestinian, and American adolescents. The first aim of this study was to identify the basic root narratives articulated by the Israeli and Palestinian participants in conversation. The second aim was to test conversational conditions associated with moments of perspective taking. Our analysis of two separate dialogue groups indicated that the Jewish participants tended to articulate a root narrative in which the Jews have good intentions to live in peace but must defend themselves. Palestinian participants tended to invoke a narrative in which they own the land but have been dispossessed and humiliated due to Jewish occupation. A comparison of different dialogue sessions indicated that when the conversation focused on the present as opposed to the past and when there was active involvement of an American third party, there were more moments in which members of each group acknowledged the narrative of the other. Our findings highlight the importance of third party involvement and concentrating discussion on the present to create more instances in which individuals can incorporate the other into their accounts of the conflict.
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Collective self-continuity, group identification and in-group defense
Anouk Smeekes & Maykel Verkuyten
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, November 2013, Pages 984-994
Abstract:
The present research tested the proposition that the sense of self-continuity that people derive from their group membership provides a basis for group identification and drives in-group defensive reactions in the context of identity threat. This proposition was examined in three studies, using the context of national identity. Study 1 found that collective self-continuity uniquely and strongly predicted national identification, when controlling for other identity motives. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that existential threats to national identity particularly increase a sense of collective self-continuity, compared to other identity motives, and that this enhanced sense of collective self-continuity results in stronger in-group defense in the form of opposition towards out-groups (Study 2) and social developments (Study 3) that may undermine group identity, as well as in stronger in-group protectionism (Study 3). Taken together, these findings indicate that collective selfcontinuity is an important motive for group identification and in-group defense in the context of identity threat.
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Ingroup identification and evaluations of confessions from ingroup and outgroup members
Tendayi Viki, Dominic Abrams & Laura Winchester
Social Psychology, Fall 2013, Pages 256-263
Abstract:
We examined the role of ingroup identification in people's responses to confessions by ingroup versus outgroup members. Across two studies, participants were exposed to ingroup or outgroup members who confessed to an offence against the ingroup or outgroup. The targets made their confessions either with remorse or with no remorse. Participants' levels of ingroup identification were also assessed. Across our studies, we found that participants felt more favorable toward an individual who confessed with remorse versus no remorse. We also found that participants felt more favorable toward an outgroup confessor compared to an ingroup one. Finally, we found that high identifiers were more willing to forgive an outgroup perpetrator who confessed to an offence against their own group with no remorse. Our results indicate that people's responses to ingroup versus outgroup confessions are partly influenced by their group membership and levels of identification.
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Letty Kwan, Chi-yue Chiu & Angela Ka-yee Leung
Social Influence, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research has shown that exposure to cultural symbols can influence personal preferences. The present research extends this finding by showing that cultural symbols acquire their cultural significance in part through their associations with intersubjectively important values - values that are perceived to be prevalent in the culture. In addition, cultural symbols can influence personal preferences through the activation of perceived normative preferences. In Study 1, perceived liking of Bush among Americans was linked to the perceived popularity of intersubjectively important values in the USA. In Study 2, both priming Bush and personal endorsement of intersubjectively important values increased Americans' liking of iconic brands (brands that symbolize American culture). Furthermore, perceived normative preferences for iconic brands fully mediated this effect.
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Eran Halperin et al.
Journal of Conflict Resolution, forthcoming
Abstract:
The goal of the current project is to integrate psychological research on emotion regulation with the study of democratic practices in general and political intolerance in particular. We hypothesized that the use of a well-established emotion regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal, would be associated with lower levels of group-based negative emotions toward one's least-liked group and lower levels of political intolerance toward that group. Preliminary data based on nationwide survey conducted among Jews in Israel show that the tendency to reappraise negative emotions during war is associated with more tolerant attitudes. In studies 1 and 2, we experimentally manipulated reappraisal, and this led to reduced levels of political intolerance toward Palestinian Citizens of Israel (study 1) and toward one's least-liked group (study 2). These effects were transmitted via a decrease in negative emotions in both studies, as well as by an increase in support for general democratic values in Study 2.
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Marco Brambilla, Miles Hewstone & Francesco Paolo Colucci
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, September 2013, Pages 648-657
Abstract:
Research has shown that intergroup contact is one of the most powerful approaches for improving outgroup attitudes. Further, it has been revealed that contact exerts its effects on prejudice reduction mostly by inducing positive affective processes. The present study (N = 146) investigated whether stereotype content enhancement along the core dimensions of competence, sociability, and morality might represent a basic cognitive mechanism driving the contact effects. Results showed that face-to-face encounters with immigrants increased their perceived competence, sociability, and morality. However, only increased perceived outgroup morality mediated the effect of contact on outgroup responses. Our findings extend prior research on the mediators of intergroup contact, showing the key role of perceived morality in driving the contact effects. The importance of these findings for improving intergroup relations is discussed.
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When Feeling Different Pays Off: How Older Adults Can Counteract Negative Age-Related Information
David Weiss, Kai Sassenberg & Alexandra Freund
Psychology and Aging, forthcoming
Abstract:
Negative age stereotypes are pervasive and threaten older adults' self-esteem. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that differentiation from one's age group reduces the impact of negative age-related information on older adults' self-evaluation. In Experiment 1, older adults (N = 83, M = 71.9 years) were confronted with neutral or negative age-related information followed by a manipulation of self-differentiation. Experiment 2 (N = 44, M = 73.55 years) tested the moderating role of self-differentiation in the relationship of implicit attitudes toward older adults and implicit self-esteem. Results suggest that self-differentiation prevents the impact of negative age-related information on older adults' self-esteem.