Stereotypes and Shifting Standards: Some Paradoxical Effects of Cognitive Load

Four studies tested a prediction derived from the shifting-standards model (Biernat, Manis, & Nelson, 1991) regarding the role stereotypes play in judgments of individual group members. Previous research has documented that stereotyping effects are stronger on objective than on subjective response scales, and the present studies found that these effects were intensified when participants were under heavy cognitive load. Stereotyping effects increased on objective judgment scales, but decreased on subjective scales. The latter is a paradoxical effect: By relying on stereotypes, one may increasingly use them as within-category comparative standards, which leads to the apparent reduction of stereotyping effects.

[1]  J. Bargh,et al.  Stereotyping based on apparently individuating information: Trait and global components of sex stereotypes under attention overload. , 1991 .

[2]  R. A. Gordon,et al.  Perceptions of Race-Stereotypic and Race-Nonstereotypic Crimes: The Impact of Response-Time Instructions on Attributions and Judgments , 1995 .

[3]  M. Biernat,et al.  Gender- and race-based standards of competence: lower minimum standards but higher ability standards for devalued groups , 1997 .

[4]  Moderating effects of personal and contextual factors in age discrimination. , 1996 .

[5]  D. Gilbert,et al.  The trouble of thinking: Activation and application of stereotypic beliefs. , 1991 .

[6]  C. Macrae,et al.  Stereotypes and Mental Life: The Case of the Motivated but Thwarted Tactician , 1994 .

[7]  Chronic and temporary distinct expectancies as comparison standards: automatic contrast in dispositional judgments. , 2001 .

[8]  M. Biernat.  The shifting standards model: Implications of stereotype accuracy for social judgment. , 1995 .

[9]  E. Tory Higgins,et al.  Context, categorization, and recall: The “change-of-standard” effect , 1983, Cognitive Psychology.

[10]  R. Wyer,et al.  Cognitive mediators of reactions to rape. , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[11]  A. Kruglanski,et al.  The freezing and unfreezing of lay-inferences: Effects on impressional primacy, ethnic stereotyping, and numerical anchoring ☆ , 1983 .

[12]  Jeffrey W. Sherman,et al.  On the Encoding of Stereotype-Relevant Information Under Cognitive Load , 2000 .

[13]  C. Crandall,et al.  All that you can be: stereotyping of self and others in a military context. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[14]  John C. Turner,et al.  Perceiving people as group members: The role of fit in the salience of social categorizations , 1991 .

[15]  A. Dijksterhuis,et al.  Judgement and memory of a criminal act: the effects of stereotypes and cognitive load , 1999 .

[16]  G. Bodenhausen.  Stereotypic biases in social decision making and memory: testing process models of stereotype use. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[17]  Cognitive aspects of prejudice. , 1969 .

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

[19]  Jeffrey W. Sherman,et al.  Stereotype efficiency reconsidered: Encoding flexibility under cognitive load. , 1998 .

[20]  G. Moskowitz,et al.  Contrast effects as determined by the type of prime: Trait versus exemplar primes initiate processing strategies that differ in how accessible constructs are used. , 1999 .

[21]  A. Dijksterhuis,et al.  Memory for stereotype‐consistent and stereotype‐inconsistent information as a function of processing pace , 1995 .

[22]  P. Herr,et al.  On the consequences of priming: Assimilation and contrast effects , 1983 .

[23]  C. Stangor,et al.  Effects of multiple task demands upon memory for information about social groups , 1991 .

[24]  G. Bodenhausen.  Emotions, Arousal, and Stereotypic Judgments: A Heuristic Model of Affect and Stereotyping , 1993 .

[25]  G. Bodenhausen,et al.  Social stereotypes and information-processing strategies: the impact of task complexity. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  C. Macrae,et al.  PROCESSING LOAD AND MEMORY FOR STEREOTYPE-BASED INFORMATION , 1993 .

[27]  Melvin Manis,et al.  Shifting standards and stereotype-based judgments. , 1994 .

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

[29]  C. Neil Macrae,et al.  Stereotypes as energy-saving devices: A peek inside the cognitive toolbox. , 1994 .

[30]  Mark P. Zanna,et al.  Time Pressure and Information Integration in Social Judgment , 1993 .

[31]  Richard F. Martell,et al.  Sex Bias at Work: The Effects of Attentional and Memory Demands on Performance Ratings of Men and Women1 , 1991 .

[32]  Thomas E. Nelson,et al.  Everyday base rates (sex stereotypes): Potent and resilient. , 1990 .

[33]  P. Winkielman,et al.  Assimilation and Contrast as a Function of Context-Target Similarity, Distinctness, and Dimensional Relevance , 1998 .

[34]  C. G. Lord,et al.  Cognitive Load and Positive Mood Reduce Typicality Effects in Attitude-Behavior Consistency , 1998 .

[35]  Charles M. Judd,et al.  Measures and models of perceived group variability. , 1990 .

[36]  G. Bodenhausen.  Stereotypes as Judgmental Heuristics: Evidence of Circadian Variations in Discrimination , 1990 .