The Influence of Prejudice on Stereotype Formation

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的目的是调查刻板印象和偏见之间的因果关系。许多当代社会心理学家认为，消极的刻板印象会导致偏见，因此，为了消除偏见的根源，他们将研究重点放在理解和打击刻板印象上。与这一普遍假设相反，经典理论家提出，消极的刻板印象是偏见的结果，而不是原因。更准确地说，消极的刻板印象可能会发展，以证明一个人对另一个群体的消极情绪。然而，很少有实证研究已经测试了这种偏见的理由假说。本研究包括四项研究，其中一项是试点研究，旨在检验关于偏见对消极刻板印象形成的因果影响的各种假设。该试点研究将衡量一个次优启动程序操纵参与者对两个新的社会类别的感情的有效性。如果有效，将在研究1-3中使用次优预充程序。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，特别是消极的感觉，是否会使分配给社会类别的特征产生偏见，来测试偏见-正当化假设。研究2将测试两个相互竞争的解释研究1的结果，即配对的独特性和动机回忆。最后，研究3将探讨偏见的理由是自动的还是需要认知资源。对这些研究的资助将为主要研究者的研究计划提供动力，并为参与该项目的博士生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.