Automatic stereotype

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Automatic stereotypes are stereotypes that are triggered spontaneously, without conscious effort, under certain conditions.

Research into social cognition has shown that stereotypes and prejudices influence our cognitive processing. A distinction is made between two possible processing processes: automatic and controlled processing.

Automatic processing can occur if the person concerned is confronted with a stimulus that evokes a previously learned association or reaction. This is e.g. B. the case after intensive training. The automatic process is moderated by the strength or intensity of the respective setting . The following applies here: The stronger the connection between the object and its evaluation, the more likely the setting will be automatically activated when the object is presented. The controlled processing is consciously perceived. It is a reflective process and involves active reflection on an attitude object.

Two-step model of cognitive processing of stereotypes

Devine and colleagues postulate a two-step model in the cognitive processing of stereotypes. In her opinion, cultures share stereotypes. The automatic connection to a setting object activates stereotypical information, which can then be rejected by the conscious and controlled processing or ignored. However, if people are very busy or distracted, the controlled level of processing cannot be initiated. The stereotype that was automatically activated is not rejected. On the other hand, there are the assumptions of Fazio and colleagues who assume that there is an automatic component of stereotypes that can be individually different and is based on the evaluation of each individual (i.e. not culturally divided). In their opinion, the individual evaluation of a setting object is activated automatically.

Measurement

When measuring the automatic activation of stereotypes, it does not make sense to rely on the parameters asked for. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that attitudes are sometimes not conscious, i.e. no information can be given in a survey; on the other hand, one does not want to express certain attitudes because they are socially undesirable (e.g. racist attitudes). Self-reports are therefore incorrect and it is advisable to use a method that reduces the reactivity when recording such settings.

Fazio and colleagues developed such an indirect way of measuring the automatic processing of stereotypes via priming . For this purpose, the test subjects were presented with words on a computer screen that they were asked to rate as positive or negative by pressing a button on the keyboard. Shortly before the word presentation, a color photo of a human face also lit up. Some of the photos were of whites and some of African Americans. The purpose of the study was to check whether the presentation of the faces has an influence on the speed of reaction when evaluating the words.

If a photo of an African American provokes prejudice in the study participant and those prejudices are automatic, negative feelings would automatically be generated. This reaction should make it easier to react more quickly to a negative word like "disgusting" afterwards by pressing the "negative button". In addition, a negative reaction to the photo should make it more difficult to react to a subsequent positive word with the "positive button". However, not all study participants showed this negative reaction to African Americans and the extent of the automatic prejudice could predict the behavior of the study participants. An African-American researcher informed the study participants at the end of the experiment. The conduct of the study participant towards the investigator was recorded by the investigator. Those study participants who had the highest score in the area of ​​automatic activation of prejudices in the word assessment task were rather unfriendly towards the investigator.

Classic studies on the automatic and controlled activation of stereotypes

Investigation of Devine

Patricia G. Devine first carried out a prejudice test with a large number of students and thus formed two groups: students with strong prejudices and students with few prejudices. This was followed by a test for automatic and conscious processing. They showed the students briefly (below the conscious perception threshold) stereotypical terms (e.g. black, lazy, hostile) and neutral terms (e.g. what, however, said) on a canvas. After presenting the words, participants were asked to read a story about "Donald" (a fictional person whose ethnicity was not mentioned) describing him as ambiguous and to give an opinion on him.

Participants who had previously seen the words that reflect stereotypes about black Americans interpreted Donald more negatively than those who had seen neutral words. Without realizing it, one group of participants was influenced by the negative words. Since this is a cultural stereotype (shared by all members of a culture) and it was activated unconsciously without cognitive control, white students with prejudice were affected as much as those without prejudice.

Stereotyping people

In 1978 Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff and Ruderman conducted an investigation. It was the task of the study participants to follow a group discussion about the planning of an advertising campaign. This conversation was presented to them on tape. During the testimony of a person, the photo of the speaking person was always presented by a projector. The group discussion was led by 3 white and 3 black Americans. After listening, the test subjects were asked to assign the pictures of the men to the various suggestions. The researchers evaluated the answers and placed particular emphasis on the mistakes made. They divided these into two types:

  • Category confusion (i.e., a statement made by a white American was assigned to another also white; a statement by a black was assigned to a different black panelist) and
  • Confusion between categories (i.e., a white man's suggestion was mistakenly assigned to a black American, and vice versa).

The result was that mistakes of the first kind were made much more frequently. That means, it is much more likely to confuse the testimony of men of the same skin color. As an explanation, the investigators cite that these errors occur more frequently because the test subjects “categorized” the discussion participants according to their skin color. This is an automatic process, as they did not pay particular attention to it or were instructed to do so. The authors of this study in no way portray the categorization as racist, rather the automatic classification according to certain characteristics (such as skin color, age, gender, etc.) is a natural and vital process.

Effects of stereotypes on behavior

In the research by Bargh , Chen and Burrows, the effects of a property, and the associated activation of a stereotype, on behavior were examined. The material consisted of different sentences in which words were interchanged. The task of the test participants, who, as in Devine's study, were also students, to put the order in order; i.e., they thought their language skills were being tested. The processed sentences either had a statement about older people or another topic. The authors now argue that the stereotype "old" is activated in the students who edited sentences about older people. Subsequent to the test, the time it took the test participants to walk down the hall was measured. The people in whom the stereotype was activated were significantly slower than the rest. Bargh, Chen and Burrows explain this result with the automatic activation of the stereotype. It is important to mention that the investigators made sure that the sentences did not make any statement about slower movement in older people.

Another study suggests that gender stereotypes even have an impact on the assessment of the risk posed by a hurricane, because hurricanes with female first names would have caused significantly more deaths in the past. The authors of the study explained this observation by the fact that people apparently rated hurricanes with female first names as less risky and consequently took fewer protective measures.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aronson E., Wilson, TD, Akert, RM (2004). Social psychology. Munich: Pearson studies. ISBN 3-8273-7084-1
  2. ↑ Devine, PG (1989a). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18.
  3. Jump up ↑ Devine PG, Monteith, MJ, Zuwerink, JR, & Elliot, AJ (1991). Prejudice with and without compunction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 817-830.
  4. ↑ Banaji, MR, & Greenwald, AG (1994). Implicit stereotyping ams prejudice. In M. Zanna & J. Olson (Eds.), The psychology of prejudice: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 7, pp. 55-76). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  5. ↑ Banaji, MR, & Greenwald, AG (1995). Implicit gender stereotyping in judgments of fame. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 181-198.
  6. ^ Nisbett, RE, & Wilson, TD (1977). Telling more than we know: Verbal reports on mental processes, Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.
  7. ↑ Crosby, F., Bromley, S., & Saxe, L. (1980). Recent unobtrusive studies of Black and White discrimination ans prejudice: A literature review. Psychological Bulletin, 87, 546-563.
  8. ↑ Fazio, RH, (1986). How you attitudes guide behavior? In RM Sorentino & ET Higgins (eds.), The handbook of motivation and cognition (pp. 204-243). New York: Guilford Press.
  9. ↑ Devine, Patricia G. (1989b). Automatic and controlled processes in prejudice: The roles of stereotypes and personal beliefs. In AR Pratkanis, SJ Breckler, & AG Greenwald (eds.), Attitude structure and function (pp. 181-212). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  10. ↑ Taylor SE, Fiske ST, Etcoff, NL, & Ruderman, AJ (1978). Categorical and Contextual Bases of Person Memory and Stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 7, 778-793.
  11. ↑ Bargh JA, Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior. Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 230-244.
  12. ↑ Kiju Jung, Sharon Shavitt, Madhu Viswanathan, Joseph M. Hilbe: Female hurricanes are deadlier than male hurricanes. PNAS (online), June 2, 2014 doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1402786111