Three experiments tested the hypothesis that comparison information about other people's stereotypic beliefs is used to validate personal beliefs about a target group. A simple manipulation of questionnaire items and their response scales, presented as part of a political opinion survey, served as social comparison information regarding beliefs about African Americans. The comparison information influenced participants' subsequently measured beliefs about group as well as their evaluation of a Black target. When provided with negative comparison information, participants reported more negative racial beliefs and a more negative evaluation of the Black target than when provided with positive feedback. Moreover; this effect depended on participants' initial stereotypic beliefs. Only participants with initially negative beliefs about the target group were influenced by the comparison information; participants with relatively positive beliefs were not.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Allen, V. L. (1965). Situational factors in conformity. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 133-175). New York: Academic Press.
2.
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice-Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
3.
Asch, S. E. (1952). Social psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
4.
Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies on independence and conformity. a minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs, 70, 1-70.
5.
Ashmore, R. D. , & Del Boca, F. K. (1981). Conceptual approaches to stereotypes and stereotyping. In D. L. Hamilton (Ed.), Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior (pp. 1-35). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaunm.
6.
Blanchard, F. A. , Lilly, T., & Vaughn, L. A. (1991). Reducing the expression of racial prejudice. Psychological Science, 2, 101-105.
7.
Bless, H. , Bohner, G., Hild, T., & Schwarz, N. (1992). Asking difficult questions: Task complexity increases the impact of response alter-natives. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 309-312.
8.
Christenson, P. G. , & Roberts, D. F. (1983). The role of television in the formation of children's social attitudes. In MJA Howe (Ed.), Learning from television: Psychological and educational research (pp. 79-99). London: Academic Press.
9.
Crosby, F. , Bromley, S., & Saxe, L. (1980). Recent unobtrusive studies of Black-and-White discrimination and prejudice: A literature re-view. Psychological Bulletin, 87, 546-563.
10.
Crutchfield, R. S. (1955). Conformity and character. Amen can Psychologist, 10, 191-198.
11.
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18.
12.
Dovidio, J. F. , & Gaertner, S. L. (1986). Prejudice, discrimination, and racism: Historical trends and contemporary approaches. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 1-34). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
13.
Eagly, A. H. , & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace jovanovich.
14.
Edsall, T. B. , & Edsall, M. D. (1991, May). When the official subject is presidential politics, taxes, welfare, crime, rights, or value... the real subject is race. Atlantic, pp. 53-86.
15.
Feather, N. T. (1984). Protestant ethic, conservatism, and values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 1132-1141.
16.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117-140.
17.
Freedman, L. J. (1977). Sex role stereotyping in the mass media: An annotated bibliography. New York: Garland.
18.
Gaertner, S. L. , & Dovidio, J. F. (1977). The subtlety of white racism, arousal, and helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 691-707.
19.
Gilbert, G. M. (1951). Stereotype persistence and change among college students. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 46, 245-254.
20.
Greenberg, B. S. , & Mazingo, S. L. (1976). Racial issues in the mass media. In P. A. Katz (Ed.), Towards the elimination of racism (pp. 309-339). New York: Pergamon.
21.
Greenberg, J. , & Pyszczynski, T. (1985). The effect of an overheard ethnic slur on evaluations of the target: How to spread a social disease. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 61-72.
22.
Hogg, M. A. , & Turner, J. C. (1987). Social identity and conformity: A theory of referent informational influence. In W. Doise & S. Moscovici (Eds.), Current issues in European social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 139-182). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
23.
Karlins, M. , Coffman, T. L., & Walters, G. (1969). On the fading of social stereotypes: Studies in three generations of college students. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 1-16.
24.
Katz, D. , & Braly, K. W. (1933). Racial stereotypes of one hundred college students. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28, 280-290.
25.
Katz, I. , & Hass, R. G. (1988). Racial ambivalence and American value conflict: Correlational and priming studies of dual cognitive structures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 893-905.
26.
Kelman, H. C. (1958). Compliance, identification and internalization: Three processes of attitude change. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, 51-60.
27.
Lippmann, W. (1922). Public opinion. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
28.
Mackie, D. (1986). Social identification effects in group polarization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 720-728.
29.
Markus, H. , & Zajonc, R. (1985). The cognitive perspective in social psychology. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (3rd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 137-230). New York: Random House.
30.
McArthur, L. Z. , & Resko, B. G. (1975). The portrayal of men and women in American television commercials. Journal of Social Psychology, 97, 209-220.
31.
McConahay, J. B. (1986). Modern racism, ambivalence, and the Modern Racism Scale. In J. R. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 91-125). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
32.
McConahay, J. B. , Hardee, B. B., & Batts, V. (1981). Has racism declined in America? It depends on who is asking and what is asked. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 25, 563-579.
33.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
34.
Moscovici, S. (1976). Social influence and social change. New York: Academic Press.
35.
Moscovici, S. (1985). Social influence and conformity. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 397-412). New York: Random House.
36.
Nemeth, C. J. (1986). Differential contributions of majority and minority influence. Psychological Review, 93, 1-10.
37.
Oakes, P. J. , Haslam, A., & Turner, J. C. (1994). Stereotyping and social reality. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
38.
O'Gorman, H. J. (1975). Pluralistic ignorance and White estimates of White support for racial segregation. Public Opinion Quarterly, 39, 313-330.
39.
Pettigrew, T. F. , & Meertens, R. W. (1995). Subtle and blatant prejudice in Western Europe. European Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 57-75.
40.
Reid, P. T. (1979). Racial stereotyping on television: A comparison of the behavior of both Black and White television characters. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64, 465-471.
41.
Roberts, D. F. , & Maccoby, N. (1985). Effects of mass communication. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 539-598). New York: Random House.
42.
Rohrer, J. H. , Blaron, S. H., Hoffman, E. L., & Swander, D. V. (1954). The stability of the autokinetic judgment. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49, 595-597.
43.
Rokeach, M. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes, and values. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
44.
Schachter, S. , & Singer, J. E. (1962). Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of the emotional state. Psychological Review, 69, 379-399.
45.
Schwarz, N. , & Hippler, H. J. (1991). Response alternatives: The impact of their choice and presentation order. In P. Biemer, R. Groves, L. Lyberg, N. Mathiowetz, & S. Sudman (Eds.), Measurement error in surveys (pp. 41-56). New York: John Wiley.
46.
Schw,arz, N. , Hippler, H. J., Deutsch, B., & Strack, F. (1985). Response categories: Effects on behavioral reports and comparative judgments. Public Opinion Quarterly, 49, 388-395.
47.
Sears, D. O. (1988). Symbolic racism. In P. A. Katz & D. A. Taylor (Eds.), Eliminating racism: Profiles in controversy (pp. 53-84). New York: Plenum.
48.
Sherif, M. (1935). A study of some social factors in perception. Archives of Psychology, 27, No. 187.
49.
Sherif, M. (1967). Group conflict and cooperation. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
50.
Sigall, H. , & Page, R. (1971). Current stereotypes: A little fading, a little faking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 247-255.
51.
Turner, J. C. (1991). Social influencePacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
