A tool for thought! When comparative thinking reduces stereotyping effects

Katja Corcoran , Tanja Hundhammer , Thomas Mussweiler

Stereotypes have pervasive, robust, and often unwanted effects on how people see and behave towards others. Undoing these effects has proven to be a daunting task. Two studies demonstrate that procedurally priming participants to engage in comparative thinking with a generalized focus on differences reduces behavioral and judgmental stereotyping effects. In Study 1, participants who were procedurally primed to focus on differences sat closer to a skinhead - a member of a negatively stereotyped group. In Study 2, participants primed on differences ascribed less gender stereotypic characteristics to a male and female target person. This suggests that comparative thinking with a focus on differences may be a simple cognitive tool to reduce the behavioral and judgmental effects of stereotyping.

Mots clés: stereotyping; social comparison; comparative thinking styles; stereotype reduction; social cognition

Domaines: Psychologie et comportements

Katja Corcoran, Tanja Hundhammer, Thomas Mussweiler. A tool for thought! When comparative thinking reduces stereotyping effects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2009, 45 (4), pp.1008. ⟨10.1016/j.jesp.2009.04.015⟩. ⟨hal-00690058⟩