The Influence of Prejudice on Stereotype Formation

描述(申请人提供)：拟议研究的目的是调查陈规定型观念和偏见之间的因果关系。许多当代社会心理学家认为，负面刻板印象会导致偏见，因此，为了铲除偏见的根源，他们将研究重点放在理解和打击刻板印象上。与这一流行的假设相反，经典理论家提出，负面刻板印象是偏见的结果，而不是原因。更准确地说，负面刻板印象的形成可能是为了证明一个人对另一个群体的负面情绪是合理的。然而，很少有实证研究检验这一偏见正当性假设。这项拟议的研究包括四项研究，其中包括一项初步研究，旨在检验关于偏见对负面刻板印象形成的因果影响的各种假设。这项初步研究将评估次优启动程序的有效性，以操纵参与者对两个新的社会类别的感觉。如果有效，次优启动程序将在研究1-3中使用。研究1将通过操纵参与者对两个新的社会类别的感觉，然后观察这些感觉，特别是负面感觉是否会偏向分配给社会类别的特征，来测试偏见-正当假设。研究二将检验研究一结果的两种相互矛盾的解释，即配对区分能力和动机回忆。最后，研究3将考察偏见辩护是否是自动的或需要认知资源。对这些研究的资助将为首席研究员的研究计划提供动力，并为参与该项目的博士和本科生提供宝贵的研究经验和培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the proposed research is to investigate the causal relationship between stereotypes and prejudice. Many contemporary social psychologists assume that negative stereotypes cause prejudice, and therefore, in an effort to pull out the roots of prejudice, they focus their research on understanding and fighting stereotyping. In contrast to this prevailing assumption, classic theorists proposed that negative stereotypes are the result rather than the cause of prejudice. More precisely, negative stereotypes may develop in order to justify one's negative feelings toward another group. However, little empirical research has tested this prejudice-justification hypothesis. The proposed research involves four studies, including one pilot study, designed to test various hypotheses regarding the causal influence of prejudice on negative stereotype formation. The pilot study will gauge the effectiveness of a suboptimal priming procedure for manipulating participants' feelings towards two novel social categories. If effective, the suboptimal priming procedure will be used in Studies 1-3. Study 1 will test the prejudice-justification hypothesis by manipulating participants' feelings towards two new social categories and then observing whether those feelings, particularly negative feelings, bias the traits assigned to the social categories. Study 2 will test two competing explanations for the results of Study 1, namely paired distinctiveness and motivated recall. Lastly, Study 3 will examine whether the prejudice justification is automatic or requires cognitive resources. Funding for these studies will provide the impetus for the principal investigator's research program, as well as valuable experience and training in research for doctoral and undergraduate students involved with the project.