Social judgeability: The impact of meta-informational cues on the use of stereotypes.

Abstract

According to a social judgeability analysis, a crucial determinant of impression formation is the extent to which people feel entitled to judge a target person. Two experiments tested the impact of the subjective availability of individuating information on a social judgment independent of its actual presence. In Experiment 1, people made a stereotypical judgment when they believed individuating information was present even if no information was in fact given. In Experiment 2, Ss who thought they received individuating information made more extreme and confident judgments than Ss who thought they received category information. This indicates that Ss' judgments were not simply a function of implicit demand: The illusion of receiving individuating information led Ss to believe they possessed the necessary evidence for legitimate decision making. This result supports the existence of rules in the social inference process.According to most social-cognitive accounts, an impression stems from a match between categorical and individuating information, or between theories about data and actual data. When forming an impression, perceivers have to consider the wealth of the categorical information as well as the rich concreteness of the individuating evidence (for a review, see Fiske & Taylor, 1991).Recent research on person perception shows that cognitive and motivational variables contribute to finding this optimal match. For instance, consideration of the base rates provided by the category (Ginossar & Trope, 1987), accessibility of alternative hypotheses (Kruglanski & Mayseless, 1988), and attention to inconsistent individuating information (Neuberg & Fiske, 1987) are cognitive factors that determine "adequate" impression formation. Also, accuracy goals (Kruglanski, 1989(Kruglanski, , 1990,

Understanding how consumers categorise nutritional labels: A consumer derived typology for front-of-pack nutrition labelling

“…In the 'real world' we know that most consumers don't have the time or motivation to process lots of nutritional information when they are shopping (Gerrier, 2010), however the expressed need for more information by some participants when presented with the low information content directive labels should perhaps be considered in the context of Judgeability Theory (Yzerbyt et al, 1994). This suggests that whilst people often understand and respond to simple cues better particularly when under time pressure, they often want to believe that they are making rational choices based on rational data.…”

Seeing I to I: A Pathway to Interpersonal Connectedness.

“…All participants read the same neutral information about their partner (e.g., that he or she majors in psychology; that he or she spent the previous summer working). We included this procedural element to give participants the feeling of having adequate information on which to base their judgment of their partner (e.g., Yzerbyt, Schadron, Leyens, & Rocher, 1994). After receiving this information, participants responded to five questions assessing their liking for their communication partner.…”

Feminized management and backlash toward agentic women: The hidden costs to women of a kinder, gentler image of middle managers.

“…In contrast, the perception that agentic women are not nice may elicit hiring discrimination when interpersonal skills are an explicit criterion for the job (i.e., when the job is feminized). As Yzerbyt, Schadron, Leyens, and Rocher (1994) have shown, stereotypes may not be used to judge others (because of social norms) unless the situation permits or encourages it. Thus, stereotyped impressions may not necessarily result in discrimination unless evaluators feel they "have a right" to use the stereotype when judging others (see also Yzerbyt, Leyens, & Schadron, 1997).…”