No evidence for social factors in the overestimation of individuals from minority groups

Reply to Gayet et al.: Minority salience as a social and cognitive phenomenon

“…In Experiment 2, Gayet et al. ( 2 ) argue that the same pattern of results may be obtained with nonsocial stimuli (light vs. dark gray circles), suggesting that the MS effect is not social in nature. There are three points we wish to make here.…”

“…Given these patterns it is perhaps not surprising that the three-way interaction reported by Gayet et al. ( 2 ) is not significant. These results further support for the role of social knowledge in MS.…”

“…Crucially, it is significant [( F (1,185) = 8.17, P = 0.005], above and beyond background color. In other words, Gayet et al.’s ( 2 ) data indicate that social knowledge does play a role in the MS effect.…”

“…Gayet et al. ( 2 ) tested the hypothesis that the effect in Experiment 5 is driven by low-level characteristics of the display, not social knowledge.…”

“…In Experiment 1 Gayet et al. ( 2 ) examine whether a visual change to the background (white vs. black) moderates the effect of social knowledge. They report a three-way interaction, supporting the idea that visual aspects do play a role.…”