Stereotype content of occupational groups in Germany

Abstract

The stereotype content model (SCM) is a prominent model of social perception proposing two dimensions of evaluation: Warmth and competence. Occupational stereotypes have rarely been assessed in this model, especially in the German context, albeit their important impact on how individuals experience gainful occupation and navigate everyday social interactions. Responding to recent methodological critiques regarding the SCM's scale performance, we developed a context‐adapted, well‐performing German‐language SCM scale and assessed warmth and competence ratings of 13 occupational groups in a heterogeneous sample (N = 425). Using the alignment optimization procedure to allow for more reliable latent mean value comparisons, we found occupational stereotypes to differ substantially on both dimensions, with Firefighters presenting the most favorable and Politicians and Unemployed people showing the least favorable evaluations. We discuss our findings in terms of their content‐wise and methodological meaning as well as their implications for research and in occupational contexts.

Warmth and competence perceptions of key protagonists are associated with containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from 35 countries

“…Overall, also other political protagonists beyond heads of state who were nominated as relevant in different country contexts were not perceived in a positive light. This observation fits with findings suggesting that politicians are perceived less favorably than other social groups (25,47). Ever more people feel politically alienated in many democratic states across the globe (48,49), and the pandemic is likely to have added fuel to this trend (50).…”

“…We base our study on the stereotype content model (20) and its extension (21), which provide a robust and well-established paradigm to investigate societally shared perceptions (22). Originally, the stereotype content model was designed to shed light on the societally shared perceptions of social groups in general (20), and has been adapted to investigate domain-specific social perceptions, including migrants (23,24), occupations (25,26), or institutes and brands (27). Recently, the model has been shown to be compatible with other prominent models and theories of social perceptions (22).…”

Warmth and competence perceptions of key protagonists are associated with containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from 35 countries

“…Overall, other political protagonists beyond heads of state who were nominated as relevant in different countries were also not perceived in a positive light. This observation fits with findings suggesting that politicians are perceived less favorably than other social groups 25,47 . Increasingly, people feel politically alienated in many democratic states 48,49 , and the pandemic has likely exacerbated this trend 50 .…”

“…The present study addresses this gap by investigating societally shared perceptions of relevant protagonists in the COVID-19 pandemic and their correlates with pandemic-related behaviors in 35 countries across six continents.We base our study on the stereotype content model (SCM) 20 and its extension 21 , which provide a well-established paradigm to investigate societally shared perceptions 22 . Originally, the SCM was designed to shed light on societally shared perceptions of social groups in general 20 , and has been adapted to investigate domain-specific social perceptions, including migrants 23,24 , occupations 25,26 , or institutions and brands 27 . Recently, the model has been found to be compatible with other prominent models of social perceptions 22 .The SCM 20 suggests that people make sense of the social world by addressing two fundamental questions when evaluating protagonists: Are their intentions generally perceived as friendly or hostile?…”

“…We base our study on the stereotype content model (SCM) 20 and its extension 21 , which provide a well-established paradigm to investigate societally shared perceptions 22 . Originally, the SCM was designed to shed light on societally shared perceptions of social groups in general 20 , and has been adapted to investigate domain-specific social perceptions, including migrants 23,24 , occupations 25,26 , or institutions and brands 27 . Recently, the model has been found to be compatible with other prominent models of social perceptions 22 .…”