Linguistic description moderates the evaluations of counterstereotypical people.

The present research investigated linguistic description as a moderator of biased evaluations of counterstereotypical individuals. Members of an online participant pool (N = 237) indicated their liking for stereotypical and counterstereotypical individuals who were described using adjectives or behaviors. There was a significant interaction between target typicality and linguistic description: People liked counterstereotypical individuals more than stereotypical individuals when target individuals were described using adjectives. In contrast, they showed no bias or a negative bias against counterstereotypical individuals who were described using behaviors. This interaction effect generalized across gender targets (men/women) and sexuality targets (gay/straight), and it was partially mediated by subjective processing fluency. Implications for the backlash effect and prejudice reduction are discussed.

[1]  Gün R. Semin,et al.  Linguistic Context and Social Perception , 2002 .

[2]  Dale T. Miller,et al.  Combining Social Concepts: The Role of Causal Reasoning , 1990, Cogn. Sci..

[3]  M. Brewer The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time , 1991 .

[4]  M. Gill,et al.  When information does not deter stereotyping: Prescriptive stereotyping can foster bias under conditions that deter descriptive stereotyping , 2004 .

[5]  A. Maass,et al.  Converting Verbs into Adjectives: Asymmetrical Memory Distortions for Stereotypic and Counterstereotypic Information , 2005 .

[6]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  R. Crisp,et al.  A processing fluency explanation of bias against migrants , 2010 .

[8]  Karen E. Dill,et al.  Evaluations of Ingroup and Outgroup Members: The Role of Category-Based Expectancy Violation , 1997 .

[9]  Howard L. Fromkin,et al.  Uniqueness, the human pursuit of difference , 1980 .

[10]  Brian Mullen,et al.  Ingroup bias as a function of salience, relevance, and status: An integration , 1992 .

[11]  Galen V. Bodenhausen,et al.  Resisting Stereotype Change: The Role of Motivation and Attentional Capacity in Defending Social Beliefs , 1999 .

[12]  C. Dweck,et al.  Stereotype formation and endorsement: The role of implicit theories. , 1998 .

[13]  M. Hewstone,et al.  Stretching the boundaries: Strategic perceptions of intragroup variability , 2001 .

[14]  Karen M. Douglas,et al.  Effects of communication goals and expectancies on language abstraction. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[15]  C. Judd,et al.  When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  M. Brewer A dual process model of impression formation. , 1988 .

[17]  J. Holmes Transparency of Self-Report Racial Attitude Scales , 2009 .

[18]  Thomas E. Nelson,et al.  Stereotypes and Standards of Judgment , 1991 .

[19]  Vincent Leemans,et al.  Protecting the Ingroup: Motivated Allocation of Cognitive Resources in the Presence of Threatening Ingroup Members , 2001 .

[20]  Miguel M. Unzueta,et al.  The effect of interethnic ideologies on the likability of stereotypic vs. counterstereotypic minority targets , 2010 .

[21]  J. Greenberg,et al.  Stereotypes and terror management: evidence that mortality salience enhances stereotypic thinking and preferences. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Estimating and testing mediation and moderation in within-subject designs. , 2001, Psychological methods.

[23]  P. Winkielman,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article Prototypes Are Attractive Because They Are Easy on the Mind , 2022 .

[24]  C. Crandall,et al.  A justification-suppression model of the expression and experience of prejudice. , 2003, Psychological bulletin.

[25]  Laurie A. Rudman,et al.  Reactions to counterstereotypic behavior: the role of backlash in cultural stereotype maintenance. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  K. Vohs,et al.  Case Western Reserve University , 1990 .

[27]  C. Judd,et al.  Adjusting researchers' approach to adjustment: On the use of covariates when testing interactions , 2004 .

[28]  C. R. Snyder,et al.  Handbook of positive psychology , 2002 .

[29]  Laurie A. Rudman,et al.  Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes and Backlash Toward Agentic Women , 2001 .

[30]  Iva Katzarska-Miller,et al.  Race-Based Shifting Standards and Racial Discrimination , 2009, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[31]  Wendy Wood,et al.  Inferred sex differences in status as a determinant of gender stereotypes about social influence. , 1982 .

[32]  D. Mackie,et al.  The impact of stereotype-incongruent information on perceived group variability and stereotype change. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[33]  B. Simon,et al.  Stereotyping and self-stereotyping in a natural intergroup context : the case of heterosexual and homosexual men , 1991 .

[34]  C. R. Snyder,et al.  Abnormality as a positive characteristic: The development and validation of a scale measuring need for uniqueness. , 1977 .

[35]  R. Crisp,et al.  Implications of Cognitive Busyness for the Perception of Category Conjunctions , 2006, The Journal of social psychology.

[36]  Laurie A. Rudman,et al.  Feminized management and backlash toward agentic women: the hidden costs to women of a kinder, gentler image of middle managers. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  Roland Imhoff,et al.  What Motivates Nonconformity? Uniqueness Seeking Blocks Majority Influence , 2009, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[38]  V. Brescoll,et al.  The Price of Power: Power Seeking and Backlash Against Female Politicians , 2010, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[39]  Steven L. Neuberg,et al.  Personal Need for Structure: Individual Differences in the Desire for Simple Structure , 1993 .

[40]  Laurie A. Rudman,et al.  Self-promotion as a risk factor for women: the costs and benefits of counterstereotypical impression management. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[41]  Jonah Berger,et al.  Alone in a crowd of sheep: asymmetric perceptions of conformity and their roots in an introspection illusion. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[42]  H. Markus,et al.  Deviance or uniqueness, harmony or conformity? A cultural analysis. , 1999 .

[43]  Deborah L. Hall,et al.  Attitudes Toward Stereotypical Versus Counterstereotypical Gay Men and Lesbians , 2009, Journal of sex research.

[44]  R. Crisp,et al.  The Composition of Category Conjunctions , 2005, Personality & social psychology bulletin.