How Are Stereotypes Maintained Through Communication? The Influence of Stereotype Sharedness.

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that interpersonal communication may be an important source of stereotype maintenance. When communicated through a chain of people, stereotype-relevant information tends to become more stereotypical, thus confirming the stereotypes held by recipients of communication. However, the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon have yet to be fully determined. This article examines how the socially shared nature of stereotypes interacts with communication processes to maintain stereotypes in communication chains. In 3 experiments, participants communicated a stereotype-relevant story through 4-person chains using the method of serial reproduction. Manipulations included the extent to which communicators believed their audience and other community members shared and endorsed their stereotypes, and also the extent to which they actually shared the stereotypes. The shared nature of stereotypes was found to be a strong contributor to rendering the story more stereotypical in communication. This is discussed in relation to the maintenance of stereotypes through communication.

Mnemonic convergence in social networks: The emergent properties of cognition at a collective level

“…Equally important, strategies aimed at facilitating social justice in open societies could benefit from the approach proposed herein. Our findings could lead to interventions aimed at diminishing the propagation and maintenance of stereotype-consistent information in communities of individuals (32). Given its large-scale nature, our approach could prove more impactful from a policy perspective than current interventions aimed at an individual level (31,33).…”

Talking nets: A multiagent connectionist approach to communication and trust between individuals.

“…Grice (1975) derived from this cooperative principle two important conversational maxims: the maxim of quality ("Try to make your contribution one that is true", p. 46) and the maxim of quantity ("Make your contribution TRUST Connectionist Model of Communication 18 as informative as is required for the current purpose of the exchange", p. 45). These two maxims have gained increasing attention in social psychology (e.g., Lyons & Kashima, 2003) and are also incorporated in the present model. All the simulations make use of the maxim of quality -the cornerstone of our model-while Simulation 5 (on transmission of stereotypes) and 6 (on the use of unique information) specifically target the application of the maxim of quantity.…”

“…This gives an opportunity to study the process by which people coordinate and establish a joint perspective during the conversation (Schober & Clark, 1989). Another paradigm takes its inspiration from rumors, and how they are sequentially spread in a community (Lyons & Kashima, 2003), while still another paradigm explores free discussions and how information that is unique to some members is shared TRUST Connectionist Model of Communication 24 in the whole group (Tasser, 1999).…”

The Roles of In-Group Exemplars and Ethnicracial Identification in Self-Stereotyping

“…However, because perceivers may not always have the opportunity to encounter a group exemplar or may be unmotivated or hard pressed to bring one to conscious memory, they may be susceptible to relying on an abstract group prototype stored in memory. This appears to be particularly the case when perceivers are making categorizations of strongly stigmatized out-groups because the mental representations of such groups include stereotypes that are maintained through interpersonal and intergroup experiences and the media (Lyons & Kashima, 2003;Ross & Lester, 2011). When perceivers, however, are placed in contexts in which they are exposed to exemplars of stereotyped groups, it shifts group perceptions and judgments away from those that are prototype consistent (Brauer & Er-Rafiy, 2011;Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001;Dasgupta & Rivera, 2008;Hewstone & Hamberger, 2000).…”