INCONGRUITY VS SUPPRESSION IN PERSON PERCEPTION: EVIDENCE FROM EVOKED POTENTIALS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The overall goal of this project is to begin a long-term program of research that will combine the study of brain activity through event-related potentials (ERPs) with that of social cognition and person perception, correlating the two. Although the immediate goal is to better understand and differentiate theoretical processes, the eventual aim is to design a program that will teach human perceivers how to evaluate others more accurately and with less bias. Specifically it is here proposed to correlate event-related potentials in the brain with perceiving persons fitting various stereotypes, positive and negative, using an affective priming paradigm with response latency as the dependent variable. Three groups will be given instructions either to suppress stereotypes, use them for speed, or no instruction. ERPs of the frontal and parietal regions will differentiate between weak stereotyping, poor fit to the stereotype, or suppression of the stereotype. Can people be taught to make more accurate judgments about strangers in order to reduce violence caused when negative stereotypes of others are automatically activated? This study will differentiate between weak stereotypes and the ability to control strong ones.