Effects of Category-Based Expectancy Violation on Evaluations and Motivated Reasoning

目前，关于同等资格的人是否有同等的教育和工作机会存在着广泛的争论。这项研究是一个更大的研究项目的一部分，该项目旨在了解求职者的资历信息与他们的种族或性别信息如何影响人们对求职者资历的看法。如果证书相对相等，那么不同种族和性别背景的人获得机会的机会应该是相同的。根据这种观点，资格本身就决定了获得机会的可能性。然而，一些证据表明，决策者可能会利用种族和性别信息来指导他们对求职者资格的决定。从这个角度来看，重要的是要考虑对特定类型的人和特定类型的机会（例如，工作）的先前期望如何影响对资格的判断。例如，先前的期望可能包括关于谁最适合某一特定类型的工作或谁最适合进入医学院的刻板印象。这些先前的期望可能反过来影响对求职者资格的决定。本研究旨在系统地考察先验预期与个人信息（如学历、种族、性别）相结合如何影响决策者对个人的情感反应、评价和判断以及推理过程。通过检查这些变量，目前的研究将深入了解影响决策者对谁最有资格获得宝贵机会的看法的因素。

Currently, there is widespread debate about whether persons with equal qualifications have equal educational and job opportunities. This research is part of a larger program of studies designed to understand how information about a job candidate's credentials in combination with information about their race or gender affect perceptions of the job candidate's qualifications. If credentials are relatively equivalent, then the chances of obtaining opportunities should be the same for persons of different racial and gender backgrounds. According to this perspective, qualifications alone determine the likelihood of opportunities. However, some evidence suggests that decision makers may use race and gender information to guide their decisions regarding a job candidate's qualifications. From this view, it is important to consider how prior expectations about particular types of persons as well as particular types of opportunities (e.g., jobs) may affect judgments about qualifications. For example, prior expectations may include stereotypes about who is best suited for a particular type of job or who is best suited for entry into medical school. These prior expectations may in turn influence decisions about job candidates' qualifications. This research is designed to systematically examine how prior expectancies in combination with person information (e.g., credentials, race, gender) influence decision makers' affective reactions toward, evaluations and judgments of, and reasoning processes about persons. By examining these variables, the current research will provide insight into the factors that affect decision makers' perceptions about who is best qualified for access to valuable opportunities.