Work

Seeing is not stereotyping: the functional independence of categorization and stereotype activation

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Social categorization has been viewed as necessarily resulting in stereotyping, yet extant research suggests the two processes are differentially sensitive to task manipulations. Here, we simultaneously test the degree to which race perception and stereotyping are conditionally automatic. Participants performed a sequential priming task while either explicitly attending to the race of face primes or directing attention away from their semantic nature. We find a dissociation between the perceptual encoding of race and subsequent activation of associated stereotypes, with race perception occurring in both task conditions, but implicit stereotyping occurring only when attention is directed to the race of the face primes. These results support a clear conceptual distinction between categorization and stereotyping and show that the encoding of racial category need not result in stereotype activation.

Source: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsx009

Authors: Tiffany A. Ito, Silvia Tomelleri

Institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Padua

Language: English

Topic: Social and Intergroup Psychology

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,379

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health