The Impact of Direction of Deviance on Stereotype Change
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And Yet They Move: The Impact of Direction of Deviance on Stereotype Change Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.) vorgelegt dem Rat der Fakultät für Sozial- und Verhaltenswissenschaften der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena von Dipl.-Psych. Mirjam Dolderer geboren am 07.04.1978 in Schwäbisch Gmünd Gutachter: 1. Prof. Dr. Amélie Mummendey, Universität Jena 2. Prof. Dr. Klaus Rothermund, Universität Jena 3. Prof. Dr. Stephan Lessenich, Universität Jena Tag des Kolloquiums: 22.04.2008 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to many people who helped, supported and ‘distracted’ me while I worked on this dissertation. First of all I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor Amélie Mummendey for the trust, encouragement and especially for the stimulating theo- retical discussions, which always reminded me of the ‘big picture’ again. But not just for the scientific training, also for the encouragement while deciding on the professional future, I am very grateful. Likewise, I am equally thankful to Klaus Rothermund for very helpful feedback on the theoretical argument, supportive and fruitful critiques, and additionally the support in methodological questions. I am much obliged to Thorsten Meiser for his very helpful advises while starting this project. Furthermore, I am deeply grateful to Vincent Yzerbyt whom I visited while working on this dissertation. I acquired many scientific skills while staying in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Thanks to Ilka, Maria, Mauro, Maya, Muriel, Natascha, Nicole, and Sarah for providing comments on chapters of this thesis. I learned a lot about English grammar from you. Thanks to the DFG (German Research Council) for financial support and the great opportunity to travel and meet people from the other sites. I would also like to express my gratitude to the faculty of the IGC who demonstrated an amazing instinct when appointing doctoral students. I experienced the fit among the fellows as ‘supercongruent’. It was a pleasure working and living in this environment. Thank you, Nicole, without you ‘pre-testing’ the IGC, I might have ended up somewhere else. I would like to thank the Jena-friends inside and outside the IGC for your support and distraction and making this place feel like home. Thank you, Marcel, for spending evenings in our fa- vourite place and discussing everything even research. Lastly, I would like to thank my brother and my parents who always have been extremely supportive. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................................................................3 TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................................................6 1. Introduction: You’ve Seen One, You’ve Seen Them All… .......................................................................7 2. Stereotypes: Cognitive Templates to Simplify Your Life........................................................................ 12 2.1 Stereotypes: How are They Defined?................................................................................................. 12 2.2 Stereotypes: How are They Represented? ..........................................................................................14 2.3 Stereotypes: Why do They Exist?....................................................................................................... 17 2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 18 3. Exemplar-Category-Relations I: Supercongruent vs. Incongruent........................................................ 19 4. Models of Change........................................................................................................................................ 22 4.1 Antecedents of Categorization............................................................................................................ 24 4.2 Consequences of Categorization ........................................................................................................ 26 4.3 Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 29 5. Exemplar-Category-Relations II: Who’s Typical, Who’s Not................................................................ 31 6. Super- vs. Incongruent: Perceived Typicality and Stereotype Change.................................................. 34 6.1 Hypotheses and Previous Findings..................................................................................................... 34 6.2 Overview of the Present Research...................................................................................................... 38 7. Part I: Asymmetry in Perception and Impact of Super- and Incongruent Exemplars......................... 40 7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 40 7.2 Study 1: Differences Between Incongruent, Congruent and Supercongruent Exemplars .................. 41 7.3 Study 2: Accentuation within Stereotype Change .............................................................................. 45 5 7.4 Study 3: Stereotype Change Following In- and Supercongruent Exemplars...................................... 48 7.5 Study 4: Supercongruent or Incongruent by Means of Different Comparison Categories ................. 54 7.6 Discussion of Part I ............................................................................................................................ 60 8. Part II: Investigating the Underlying Process (Moderator 1: Mind the Deviance)............................... 64 8.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 64 8.2 Study 5: Can Typicality Judgments Impede Generalization?............................................................. 66 8.3 Study 6: Can Typicality Judgments Draw Focus on Similarities or Dissimilarities? ......................... 76 8.4 Discussion of Part II ........................................................................................................................... 83 9. Part III: The Positive Side of Subtyping (Moderator 2: Getting to Know the Deviant)....................... 86 9.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 86 9.2 Study 7: The Impact of Additional Information ................................................................................. 87 9.3 Discussion of Part III.......................................................................................................................... 92 10. General Discussion.................................................................................................................................... 97 10.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................................ 97 10.2 Underlying Processes ....................................................................................................................... 101 10.3 Results in Light of Previous Findings and Theories......................................................................... 107 10.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research ............................................................................ 111 10.5 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 112 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 114 APPENDIX.................................................................................................................................................... 117 SUMMARY................................................................................................................................................... 117 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.............................................................................................................................. 117 CURRICULUM VITAE............................................................................................................................... 117 EHRENWÖRTLICHE ERKLÄRUNG...................................................................................................... 117 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Means and standard deviations on perceived deviance and perceived typicality of incongruent, congruent and supercongruent exemplars (Study 1) .......................................44 Table 2. Means and standard deviations on difference score (IQ-estimations for both groups) and trait judgment for the target category after confrontation with either an incongruent, congruent, or supercongruent exemplar (Study 2). .........................................47 Table 3. Means and standard deviations on perceived typicality and stereotype judgment after confrontation with either an incongruent or supercongruent