Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12375
Exports for your reference manager
'Society thinks they are cold and/or incompetent, but I do not': Stereotype content ratings depend on instructions and the social group's location in the stereotype content space
[journal article]
Abstract Stereotype content researchers have grown accustomed to ask participants how 'society' views social groups to tap into culturally shared stereotype content and to reduce social desirability bias (J Person Soc Psychol, 82, 2002, 878). However, methodological and theoretical considerations raise quest... view more
Stereotype content researchers have grown accustomed to ask participants how 'society' views social groups to tap into culturally shared stereotype content and to reduce social desirability bias (J Person Soc Psychol, 82, 2002, 878). However, methodological and theoretical considerations raise questions about this common practice, and stereotype content researchers have also asked for participants' personal perspective on social groups in the past. Nonetheless, how and whether stereotype content model scores empirically differ as a function of the instructed perspective remains questionable and to date untested. Thus, we investigated whether and, if so, how stereotype content results are affected when instructing participants to evaluate social groups from society's versus their personal perspective. Across three experiments (Study 1: N = 301; Study 2: N = 126; Study 3: N = 1,221), latent mean comparisons indicated that results regarding stereotype content ratings are affected by the instructed perspective (society's vs. personal) contingent on the social group's location in the stereotype content space: Stereotype content ratings were more negative when participants were asked to provide society's perspective on social groups compared to their own perspective, but only on an already depreciated stereotype content dimension. The number of possible comparisons across experimental conditions was substantially reduced, since preconditions for these analyses were not met. Given our methodological and theoretical considerations and empirical corroborations that the instructed perspective does affect results, we encourage a discussion on how to best measure culturally shared stereotype content and propose aggregating stereotype content scores from participants' personal perspective to the cultural level.... view less
Keywords
instruction; social perception; stereotype; perspective; group; cultural factors; group membership
Classification
Social Psychology
Free Keywords
latent variable modelling; social cognition; stereotype content model
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 1018-1042
Journal
British Journal of Social Psychology, 59 (2020) 4
ISSN
2044-8309
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed