Stereotypes help people connect with others in the community: A situated functional analysis of the stereotype consistency bias in communication.

Clark, Anna E.; Kashima, Yoshihisa

doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.6.1028

Cited by 136 publications

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“…As noted earlier, individuals seem to rely on the use of stereotypes in order to rapidly reaffirm shared bonds and knowledge during communication . For instance, Clark and Kashima (2007) demonstrated that the more stereotype-consistent information is perceived as socially connective, the more it is also used during communication. As such, it is clear that individuals select stereotypeconsistent information because it is subjectively considered as a tool for enhancing social connectivity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The stereotyper and the chameleon: The effects of stereotype use on perceivers’ mimicry

Castelli

Pavan

Ferrari

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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Interpersonal dynamics may play a crucial role in the perpetuation of stereotypes. In an experimental study, participants interacted with a confederate who provided either stereotypeconsistent or stereotype-inconsistent descriptions about the elderly. Based on the assumption that mimicry represents a social glue that fosters interpersonal liking and affiliation, we assessed the extent to which participants mimicked the nonverbal behaviors of the confederate as a function of the stereotypicality of the descriptions. Results showed that nonconscious mimicry was more likely when the speaker relied on stereotypes rather than on stereotype-inconsistent information. In Study 2 the effect was replicated in relation to national stereotypes. This finding indicates that stereotypers are faced with subtle nonverbal cues from the audience that can retroactively reinforce their behaviors and thus make stereotype dismissal so difficult to be achieved. ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTMimicking stereotypers 3The stereotyper and the chameleon:The effects of stereotype use on perceivers' mimicry Stereotypes are very resistant to change. Indeed, intraindividual cognitive processes tend to selectively enhance the encoding and memory for stereotype-consistent information (see Fiske, 1998), and interpersonal communication processes tend to favor stereotype-consistent information (Lyons & Kashima, 2003;Ruscher, 1998; see Kashima, Klein, & Clark, 2007, for a review). For instance, when a story is transmitted through communication chains, it rapidly undergoes very specific transformation such that stereotype-consistent information is retained whereas stereotypeinconsistent information tends to be omitted (Lyons & Kashima, 2001. In this way, recipients of communication are finally left with biased descriptions of persons and events. In addition, stereotype-consistent and -inconsistent information is transmitted at different levels of abstraction, and the use of abstract language in the case of stereotypical information further conveys the idea that stereotypes do generalize across situations and group members (Wigboldus, Semin, &

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The stereotyper and the chameleon: The effects of stereotype use on perceivers’ mimicry

Castelli

Pavan

Ferrari

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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“…Research on how people establish common ground suggests that this use of negations is highly functional. People are more likely to talk about stereotypes and cultural knowledge that they think they share with other people even when counter-stereotypical information is available (Clark & Kashima, 2007;Fast, Heath, & Wu, 2009). This preference for the communication of stereotypes helps people to maintain and facilitate relationships and to feel socially connected (Clark & Kashima, 2007), and it facilitates the distribution of information about cultural phenomena (Fast et al, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…People are more likely to talk about stereotypes and cultural knowledge that they think they share with other people even when counter-stereotypical information is available (Clark & Kashima, 2007;Fast, Heath, & Wu, 2009). This preference for the communication of stereotypes helps people to maintain and facilitate relationships and to feel socially connected (Clark & Kashima, 2007), and it facilitates the distribution of information about cultural phenomena (Fast et al, 2009). As such, negations are an important functional linguistic mean by which stereotypes are interpersonally shared and maintained (Clark & Kashima, 2007;Fast et al, 2009; Maas, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This preference for the communication of stereotypes helps people to maintain and facilitate relationships and to feel socially connected (Clark & Kashima, 2007), and it facilitates the distribution of information about cultural phenomena (Fast et al, 2009). As such, negations are an important functional linguistic mean by which stereotypes are interpersonally shared and maintained (Clark & Kashima, 2007;Fast et al, 2009; Maas, 1999). At the same time, however, a biased use of negations may contribute to the distribution of negative and harmful stereotypes that promote prejudice and discrimination.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The negation bias: When negations signal stereotypic expectancies.

Beukeboom¹,

Finkenauer²,

Wigboldus³

2010

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

110

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Research on linguistic biases shows that stereotypic expectancies are implicitly reflected in language and thereby subtly communicated to message recipients. We examined whether these findings extend to the use of negations (e.g., not smart instead of stupid). We hypothesized that people use more negations in descriptions of stereotype inconsistent behavior than in descriptions of stereotype consistent behavior. In three studies, participants either judged the applicability of experimentally controlled person descriptions, or spontaneously produced person descriptions themselves. Results provided support for this hypothesis. Moreover, a fourth study demonstrated that negations have communicative consequences. When a target person's behavior was described with negations, message recipients inferred that this behavior was an exception to the rule, and that it was more likely caused by situational circumstances than by dispositional factors. These findings indicate that by using negations people implicitly communicate stereotypic expectancies, and that negations play a subtle but powerful role in stereotype maintenance. The negation bias 3The Negation Bias: When Negations Signal Stereotypic ExpectanciesWhen people describe others' behaviors they can choose different words and formulations.For example, people can describe a person's dim comment as Harry was stupid or Harry was not smart. Which description they choose seems arbitrary at first sight. Both sentences adequately describe the event and people do not seem to give their choice of words muchthought. Yet, research shows that rather than being arbitrary, people's choice of words and language use is driven by systematic and implicit social cognitive processes. For instance, research on linguistic biases shows that people's prior expectancies and stereotypes influence their choice of words in describing others. That is, people use more abstract predicates to describe stereotype consistent behaviors than stereotype inconsistent behaviors. This biased language use not only reflects a speaker's stereotypic expectancies about a person, but, importantly, also transmits these expectancies to recipients. In this way, biased language use is one of the predominant means of stereotype maintenance at an interpersonal level (Maass, 1999;Maass, Salvi, Arcuri & Semin, 1989;Sekaquaptewa et al., 2003;Wigboldus, Semin & Spears, 2000).To extend our knowledge on linguistic biases, the present paper introduces the negation bias. Negation descriptions contain a negation marker such as not or no to deny the truth value of a particular proposition (e.g., Harry was not smart). We will refer to descriptions of others' behavior that include such negation markers as negations. Conversely, affirmation descriptions assert the truth value of a particular proposition and may be used to describe the same behavioral event (e.g., Harry was stupid). In the present research, we investigate whether the use of negations is influenced by people's stereotypic expectancies and whether negations...

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“…However, long-term and macro-level implications of micro-level dynamics are difficult to see without formal models or computer simulations. Experimental investigations have suggested that cultural information consistent with widely shared cultural information is more likely to be transmitted (e.g., Clark and Kashima, 2007); however, it takes a computer simulation model like Axelrod's (1997) to see that this process, which tends to enhance cultural convergence, can nonetheless generate global cultural diversity under some circumstances -even when globalizations are underway (e.g., Pfau et al, 2012). Nevertheless, without cross-temporal investigations, it is impossible to conclude whether cultural diversity is being maintained or cultural convergence is occurring.…”

Section: Complementarity Of Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How can you capture cultural dynamics?

Kashima¹

2013

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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Cross-cultural comparison is a critical method by which we can examine the interaction between culture and psychological processes. However, comparative methods tend to overlook cultural dynamics -the formation, maintenance, and transformation of cultures over time. The present article gives a brief overview of four different types of research designs that have been used to examine cultural dynamics in the literature: (1) cross-temporal methods that trace medium-to long-term changes in a culture; (2) crossgenerational methods that explore medium-term implications of cultural transmission; (3) experimental simulation methods that investigate micro-level mechanisms of cultural dynamics; and (4) formal models and computer simulation methods often used to investigate long-term and macro-level implications of micro-level mechanisms. These methods differ in terms of level of analysis for which they are designed (micro vs. macrolevel), scale of time for which they are typically used (short-, medium-, or long-term), and direction of inference (deductive vs. empirical method) that they imply.The paper describes examples of these methods, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and point to their complementarity in inquiries about cultural change. Because cultural dynamics research is about meaning over time, issues deriving from interpretation of meaning and temporal distance between researchers and objects of inquiry can pose threats to the validity of the research and its findings. The methodological question about hermeneutic circle is recalled and further inquiries are encouraged.Keywords: cultural dynamics, culture change, cultural evolution, history, methodology HOW CAN YOU CAPTURE CULTURAL DYNAMICS?In the early 21st century world, the cultures that we used to take for granted as part of the immutable reality seem to be changing. Call them globalization or culture change, whatever drives the shared impression of the changing world, the dynamic movement of culture is a critical question facing humanity today. Whereas the classics of social science were born out of the observation of cultural changes in the 19th and early 20th century (often called modernization or industrialization), social science is again spurred by the contemporary experience of changing life. There are, however, critical theoretical and methodological questions -how can we capture the contemporary cultural dynamics?Although the traditional social science has used a comparative historical analysis (Mahoney and Rueschemeyer, 2003) to postulate and substantiate the theories of cultural change, contemporary research has developed various methods that were unavailable a century ago, which may enable us to consider and examine novel theoretical ideas, uncover new findings, and bring forward new insights. The purpose of this article is to take stock of those methods that have recently emerged. It does not exhaustively catalog the research that makes use of these methods, but categorize different methods, characterize them in general terms, and discuss ...

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Stereotypes help people connect with others in the community: A situated functional analysis of the stereotype consistency bias in communication.

Cited by 136 publications

References 40 publications

The stereotyper and the chameleon: The effects of stereotype use on perceivers’ mimicry

The stereotyper and the chameleon: The effects of stereotype use on perceivers’ mimicry

The negation bias: When negations signal stereotypic expectancies.

How can you capture cultural dynamics?

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