The development of stereotype content: The use of warmth and competence in assessing social groups

Children's Perceptions of Economic Groups in a Context of Limited Access to Opportunities

“…With few exceptions, research on children's wealth‐related stereotypes has focused on assumptions that high‐wealth individuals are hardworking, intelligent, and responsible, and low‐wealth individuals lack these qualities (Mistry et al., ; Roussos & Dunham, ; Shutts et al., ; Sigelman, ; Woods et al., ). This study revealed, however, that children hold very different stereotypes about high‐ and low‐wealth groups in a context of limited access to opportunities.…”

“…Previous research on children's stereotypes about economic groups has primarily focused on assumptions about competence. This work has revealed that children often infer that individuals from high‐wealth backgrounds are hardworking, intelligent, and responsible, in contrast to individuals from low‐wealth backgrounds who are assumed to lack these qualities (Mistry et al., ; Roussos & Dunham, ; Shutts et al., ; Sigelman, ; Woods, Kurtz‐Costes, & Rowley, ). However, in a context of limited access to opportunities, other stereotypes may apply.…”

“…A context of limited access to opportunities may invoke similar attitudes toward high‐wealth groups as entitled or selfish and low‐wealth groups as generous or egalitarian. Notably, however, findings in this area are not uniform; some recent studies have identified contexts in which children view high‐wealth individuals as “nicer” than low‐wealth individuals (Ahl & Dunham, ; Roussos & Dunham, ). Thus, this study examined whether children perceived different (potentially stereotypic) motivations for a high‐wealth versus a low‐wealth group in this context of limited access to opportunities.…”

“Wealth Makes Many Friends”: Children Expect More Giving From Resource‐Rich Than Resource‐Poor Individuals

“…Children as young as preschoolers show social preferences favoring resource-rich individuals. In many recent studies, such preferences have been evoked through forced-choice judgments between two individuals who differ in the quality or quantity of their resources (Dunham, Newheiser, Hoosain, Merrill, & Olson, 2014;Horwitz, Shutts, & Olson, 2014;Li, Spitzer, & Olson, 2014;McCrink, Bloom, & Santos, 2010;Shutts, Brey, Dornbusch, Slywotzky, & Olson, 2016), even in the absence of explicit "rich" or "poor" labels (for judgments when such labels are used, see Roussos & Dunham, 2016;Sigelman, 2012). When asked questions such as which individuals are "nicer" (e.g., Li et al, 2014), which individuals they would rather befriend (e.g., Shutts et al, 2016), or which groups or individuals they like better (e.g., Horwitz et al, 2014), children as young as 4 and 5 favor the materially advantaged.…”

Identification of Sustainability Key Factors Based on Capturing Dominant Feedbacks of Behavioural Stereotypes in Socio-Economic Systems

“…Competence is often related to stereotypes, and from the social perspective, it organises the content of stereotypes [44,45]. The existing studies mostly neglect competence.…”