The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Psychology ILLUSORY CORRELATION IN CHILDREN: COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL BIASES IN CHILDREN’S GROUP IMPRESSION FORMATION A Thesis in Psychology by Kristen Elizabeth Johnston © 2000 Kristen Elizabeth Johnston Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 2000 We approve the thesis of Kristen E. Johnston. Date of Signature ___________________________________________ ______________ Kelly L. Madole Assistant Professor of Psychology Thesis Advisor ___________________________________________ ______________ Janis E. Jacobs Vice President of Administration and Associate Professor Of Psychology and Human Development Thesis Advisor ___________________________________________ ______________ Janet K. Swim Associate Professor of Psychology ___________________________________________ ______________ Jeffrey Parker Assistant Professor of Psychology ___________________________________________ ______________ Susan McHale Associate Professor of Psychology ___________________________________________ ______________ Keith Crnic Department Head and Professor of Psychology iii ABSTRACT Despite the ubiquity and sometimes devastating consequences of stereotyping, we know little about the origins and development of these processes. The current research examined one way in which false stereotypes about minority groups may be developed, which is called illusory correlation. Research with adults has shown that when people are told about behaviors associated with majority and minority social groups where no relationship between social group and behavior exists, people overestimate the number of infrequent (usually negative) behaviors associated with the minority group. Thus, they form an illusory correlation between group membership and behaviors. This effect appears to be due to the enhanced salience of infrequently-occurring information, which is remembered better and therefore estimated to occur more frequently than less salient information. Furthermore, the minority group is evaluated relatively more negatively or positively than the majority group based on the perceived correlation between group membership and behaviors. When participants are members of one of the groups, people further exaggerate the illusory correlation such that their own group is more strongly associated with positive characteristics. The current research examined whether illusory correlation occurs in second- and fifth-grade children, and whether there are developmental changes in illusory correlation formation. Study 1 investigated illusory correlation formation in the absence of self- involvement in the target groups using a minimal groups paradigm. Children were presented with pictorially represented behaviors of a majority and minority group. The majority group consisted of 12 target children, and the minority group consisted of 6 target children. Participants completed attributions of each behavior to a group, a frequency estimation task in which they indicated the number of members of each group who performed the infrequent class of behaviors, and evaluations of the two groups. Children were assigned to either a Negative Behavior-Infrequent condition, in which negative behaviors were less frequent than positive behaviors, or a Positive-Infrequent condition, in which positive behaviors were less frequent. If infrequent behaviors associated with the minority group become more salient, children should overestimate the frequency with which the behaviors occur in the minority group. Thus, children should form an illusory correlation between the minority group and infrequent behaviors. iv Results showed that children overestimated the proportion of infrequent behaviors in the minority group, regardless of whether the infrequent behaviors were negative or positive. Children in the Positive-Infrequent condition also evaluated the minority group more positively than the majority group, consistent with their estimations of a larger proportion of positive behaviors in the minority group. Children in the Negative-Infrequent condition did not evaluate the groups differently, despite the fact that they estimated more negative behaviors in the minority group than the majority group. However, children’s illusory correlations predicted differences in evaluations of the majority and minority groups for the Negative-Infrequent and Positive-Infrequent conditions, indicating that group evaluations were based to some extent on the illusory correlations children formed. There were few age differences. Thus, Study 1 suggests that children do show an information processing bias that leads to illusory correlations between a minority group and infrequent behaviors. Study 2 investigated the relative influence of self-involvement in the minority or majority group and information processing biases using a minimal groups paradigm. Children were told that they were members of either a majority or minority group, and their group perceptions were measured as in Study 1. Results indicated that children overestimated the proportion of negative behaviors in the minority group, and this trend was the same for children assigned to the majority group and minority group. On the group evaluations, however, children rated their own group more positively than the other group. Illusory correlations also predicted differences in evaluations of the majority and minority groups, indicating that perceiving an association between the minority group and negative behaviors moderated the relative evaluations of the groups. Study 3 explored these relative influences using real social stimulus groups of girls and boys. Results were the same as in Study 2, with one exception. Fifth-graders in the majority group did not evaluate the groups differently, whereas second-graders in the majority group, and second- and fifth-graders in the minority group evaluated the ingroup more favorably than the outgroup. These results suggest that children are indeed susceptible to illusory correlations, and that there are few consistent age effects. Furthermore, ingroup favoritism motivations are not sufficient to prevent minority group members from perceiving an illusory correlation between their own group and negative v behaviors, although minority group children did evaluate the ingroup more favorably. Again, however, differences in evaluations of the majority and minority groups were predicted by children’s illusory correlations. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for stereotype formation, minority children’s group perceptions, and strategies for counteracting illusory correlation effects. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES………………...….…………………………………………….... x LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………….. xii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………... xiii Chapter 1. ILLUSORY CORRELATION IN CHILDREN: COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL BIASES IN GROUP IMPRESSION FORMATION…….. 1 Illusory Correlation in Adults………………………………………………….. 3 Measuring Illusory Correlation…………………………………………... 3 The Classic Paradigm……………………………………………………. 5 Explanations for Illusory correlation Findings…………………………... 7 The Distinctiveness Hypothesis……………………………………. 7 Evaluations Based on Group Size……………………………….…. 8 The Regression-Information Loss Hypothesis……………………... 10 The Exemplar-Based Model……………………………………….. 10 Encoding Bias versus Retrieval Bias………………………………. 11 The Search for Features that Distinguish Categories………………. 13 Summary…………………………………………………………… 16 Variations on the Classic Paradigm……………………………………… 17 On-Line versus Memory-Based Judgments………………………... 17 The Role of Expectation…………………………………………… 18 Target Salience……………………………………………………... 20 Summary…………………………………………………………… 22 The Self as a Member of a Target Group………………………………... 23 Summary…………………………………………………………… 31 Illusory Correlation in Children: Expectations and Related Developments…… 31 Expectations for Developmental Change in Distinctiveness-Based Illusory correlations……………………………………………………… 32 Perception of Frequency and Attention……………………………. 32 Memory Developments………………………………………….…. 34 Developmental Changes in Estimation and Use of Base-Rates……. 35 Developmental Changes in Judgment of Covariation……………... 37 Summary…………………………………………………………… 39 Empirical Evidence of Distinctiveness-Based Illusory Correlations in Children…………………………………………………………………... 40 Expectations for Illusory Correlations When the Self is a Member of a Target Group……………………………………………………………... 43 Prior Expectations and Schematic Information Processing………... 44 Developmental Changes in Intergroup Discrimination……………. 47 Summary…………………………………………………………… 50 vii Expectations for Developmental Changes in the Formation of Illusory Correlations………………………………………………………………. 50 Current Research……………………………………………………………….. 54 Chapter 2. STUDY 1: CHILDREN’S PERCEPTIONS OF DISTINCTIVENESS- BASED ILLUSORY CORRELATIONS.……………………………………... 56 Method…………………………………………………………………………. 57 Participants…………………………………………………………….…. 57 Materials……………………………………………………………….… 57 Target Children………………………………………………….…. 57 Target Behaviors…………………………………………………… 57 Photographs Depicting Target Behaviors………………………….. 58 Group-Behavior Associations……………………………………… 58 Illusory Correlation Tasks………………………………………………... 59 Group Attributions……………………………………………….… 59 Frequency Estimations……………………………………………... 59 Group Evaluations…………………………………………………. 60 Sentence Memory Measure…………………………………………….… 60 Procedure………………………………………………………………… 61 Results………………………………………………………………………….. 62 Overview