On the Roles of Stereotype Activation and Application in Diminishing Implicit Bias

Abstract

Stereotypes can influence social perception in undesirable ways. However, activated stereotypes are not always applied in judgments. The present research investigated how stereotype activation and application processes impact social judgments as a function of available resources for control over stereotypes. Specifically, we varied the time available to intervene in the stereotyping process and used multinomial modeling to independently estimate stereotype activation and application. As expected, social judgments were less stereotypic when participants had more time to intervene. In terms of mechanisms, stereotype application, and not stereotype activation, corresponded with reductions in stereotypic biases. With increasing time, stereotype application was reduced, reflecting the fact that controlling application is time-dependent. In contrast, stereotype activation increased with increasing time, apparently due to increased engagement with stereotypic material. Stereotype activation was highest when judgments were least stereotypical, and thus, reduced stereotyping may coincide with increased stereotype activation if stereotype application is simultaneously decreased.

Further Validation of Measures of Target Detection and Stereotype Activation in the Stereotype Misperception Task

“…Second, it would be interesting to study how different manipulations affect the model parameters as a function of the time available for stimulus processing and/or responding. For instance, previous research has shown that stereotype activation increases with longer time intervals in the SMT, because prime pictures are processed more thoroughly (Rivers et al, 2019). Conversely, stereotype application decreases with longer time intervals in the SMT, possibly because people are better able to control unwanted influences of activated stereotypes on judgments when more time is available.…”

“…Because we did not find clear-cut results with respect to SAP in the previous experiment with ISI = 50 ms, we decreased ISI to 0 ms. We reasoned that with a shorter ISI the likelihood of controlled processing may be reduced (cf. Rivers et al, 2019), thereby providing better conditions to isolate the effects of prototypicality on stereotype activation. Because of the additional ISI-manipulation, the number of trials was increased to 216.…”

“…Blair et al, 2002). Building on this initial research, the SMT together with the multinomial model has been used in a growing number of studies on stereotyping (Rees et al, 2019(Rees et al, , 2020Rivers et al, 2019).…”

Further validation of Measures of Target Detection and Stereotype Activation in the Stereotype Misperception Task

“…Second, it would be interesting to study how different manipulations affect the model parameters as a function of the time available for stimulus processing and/or responding. For instance, previous research has shown that stereotype activation increases with longer time intervals in the SMT, because prime pictures are processed more thoroughly (Rivers et al, 2019). Conversely, stereotype application decreases with longer time intervals in the SMT, possibly because people are better able to control unwanted influences of activated Stereotype Misperception Task 34 stereotypes on judgments when more time is available.…”

“…Building on this initial research, the SMT together with the multinomial model has been used in a growing number of studies on stereotyping (Rees, Ma, & Sherman, 2019;Rivers, Sherman, Rees, Reichardt, & Klauer, 2019).…”