Subjective Factors in Social Stereotyping and Impression Formation

Abstract

Stereotyping, the process of forming judgments from limited cues, was assessed by both the coefficient of concordance (W) and the mean intercorrelation between antonyms (r_s). In the context of the study, W reflects social stereotyping while r_s reflects a combination of social and individual stereotyping. The experimental Ss ranked 6 female physiques from those most-suiting to those least-suiting each of 15 traits. Embedded randomly within the 15 traits were three pairs of antonyms which form the basis of the present paper. Analysis of the antonymal data showed that in all three cases r_s was of greater magnitude than W, suggesting that r_s is a more accurate estimator of total stereotyping than is W. In terms of variance explained, r_s was approximately twice the magnitude of W, implying that measures such as W, χ³, and analysis of variance, which ignore subjective factors, greatly underestimate stereotyping. Finally, it was pointed out that the same problem exists in impression formation, where tests such as analysis of variance may, by excluding subjective factors, underestimate the potency of target-persons and traits. In contrast, it was noted that factor analysis and related techniques were potentially immune from these distortions.