On the Activation of Social Stereotypes: The Moderating Role of Processing Objectives

The Malleability of Automatic Stereotypes and Prejudice

“…The perceiver's approach, in turn, may directly modulate automatic processes (Bodenhausen & Macrae, 1998;Cohen et al, 1990), or influence which cues (external or internal) are given priority. For example, the motive to maintain self-esteem may influence the extent to which the perceiver focuses attention on cues related to the other person's race or profession (Sinclair & Kunda, 1999); alternatively, the perceiver may focus on cues that draw attention toward or away from a particular social category (Macrae et al, 1997), or the focus may be on internally represented stereotypic or counterstereotypic exemplars (Blair et al, 2001). In accordance with current theories of automaticity (e.g., Bargh, 1996Bargh, , 1997, those cues are considered to be the most proximal source of influence on the automatic activation of associated constructs, with the important caveat that both the perceiver's approach and the surrounding context (Macrae et al, 1995;Macrae et al, in press;Wittenbrink et al, 2001b) can modulate that influence.…”

“…The evidence reviewed in this section leaves no doubt that the perceiver's focus of attention can influence the automatic operation of stereotypes and prejudice, as well as more controlled processes. People who are preoccupied with other matters may not automatically activate stereotypes associated with the target's social category (Gilbert & Hixon, 1991;Macrae et al, 1997;Spencer et al, 1998); social category cues that are outside of the perceiver's focus of attention may not automatically activate category information (Macrae et al, 1999); perceivers who attend to different target identities may automatically activate different group attitudes (Mitchell et al, 2001); and perceivers who focus on meaning versus evaluation may produce different types of automatic attitudes (Wittenbrink et al, 2001 a).…”

Continuação do FIM – Normas de valência e familiaridade das imagens do Ficheiro de Imagens Multicategoriais

“…As imagens são diversificadas em termos do conteúdo que ilustram e respectiva categoria de pertença, podendo por isso ser utilizadas numa multiplicidade de áreas como por exemplo na activação de estereótipos. Por exemplo, sabemos que objectos como produtos de maquilhagem se associam à activação de estereótipos de género (Macrae, Bodenhausen, Milne, Thorn, & Castelli, 1997).…”

A matter of design: Priming context and person perception

“…Recent work has cast doubt on this viewpoint, however. A rapidly expanding literature has identified a range of target-and perceiver-related factors that modulate category activation, including facial typicality, gaze direction, cue availability, hormonal factors, attentional capacity, chronic and temporary processing goals and pre-existing prejudiced beliefs (Gilbert & Hixon, 1991;Lepore & Brown, 1997;Livingstone & Brewer, 2002;Macrae, Alnwick, Milne & Schloerscheidt, 2002;Macrae, Bodenhausen, Milne, Thorn & Castelli, 1997;Macrae, Hood, Milne, Rowe & Mason, 2002;Moskowitz, Gollwitzer, Wasel & Schaal, 1999;Moskowitz, Li & Kirk, 2004). Collectively, these studies demonstrate that category activation can best be characterized as a conditionally automatic mental process (Blair, 2002).…”