Accessibility and fit as determinants of the salience of social categorizations

Abstract

The present article proposes a theoretical model of factors aecting the salience of social categorizations. The model is strongly related to the accessibility  ®t formulation by Bruner (1957) and to Oakes ' (1987) functional perspective on category salience. The results of an experimental series using the`Who said what?' paradigm are presented, which examined several hypotheses derived from the model. In Study I it was shown that the salience of a social categorization with high chronic accessibility (sex categorization) was related to perceptions of issue relevance (normative ®t) and intercategory dierences (meta-contrast ratio). Furthermore, in line with the salience model measures to increase the situational accessibility, (i.e. a priming procedure) of categorizations with low chronic accessibility (educational group and home town categorizations) failed to aect category salience as long as participants perceived no comparative and normative ®t of these categorizations (Study II). Under conditions where comparative ®t of these categorizations was perceived, however, the priming procedure successfully enhanced category salience (Studies II and III). Results are largely consistent with the hypotheses derived from the salience model and support Oakes' functional approach to category salience. Finally, the complex interrelation between situational accessibility and perceived ®t will be discussed.

How malleable is categorization by race? Evidence for competitive category use in social categorization.

“…Consequently, a dimension of categorization associated with a rich set of stereotypes stored in memory would be harmed more from having attention withdrawn from its encoding than a dimension of categorization that is more unfamiliar would profit from having attention directed to it. From a broader perspective, this hypothesis is consistent with the hypothesis that accessibility and situational fit multiplicatively determine the strength of categorization (Blanz, 1999; see also Oakes, 1987), implying that the effects of situational support are larger the more accessible the categories are.…”

Social influences on spatial memory

“…A recent model of social category salience (Blanz, 1999) provides a framework for considering this question. Although this theory was developed in the context of person perception, it seems generalizable to situations in which single entities (people or places) could be categorized in multiple ways and, as such, seems applicable to the present experiments.…”

“…It is also possible that the use of political affiliation for processing information on a U.S. map, which reflects the more commonly understood relationship between political parties and spatial regions, would result in the increased use of political affiliation to structure map memory. These questions could be addressed in future research but will be discussed in the context of a theory of social category salience (Blanz, 1999) in the General Discussion section. Overall, Experiment 3 suggests that racial information is distinct from political affiliation in the context of map learning.…”

“…Which category (or combinations of categories) will influence judgments? Blanz's (1999) accessibility fit model suggests that categori l -zation use is determined by the interaction between situational accessibility and perceived fit of the category to t the situation (cf. Bruner, 1957;Oakes, 1987).…”

Was ist ein typischer Arbeiter? Stereotype über soziale Schichten

“…Studien von Mazur (1993) (Noll 1999;Hout 2007). Die Stereotypeninhalte fungieren offensichtlich als Kriterien, die die Zuordnung einer Person zu sozialen Schichten steuern (Blanz 1999 …”