The Consequences of Communicating Social Stereotypes
Author(s)
Thompson, Micah S.; Judd, Charles M.; Park, Bernadette
Abstract
At the extreme, social stereotypes can be learned either from direct contact with individual target group members or from communications about the target group received from others. These two forms of stereotype acquisition have consequences for the nature and content of the stereotype that is formed (Park & Hastie, 1987). The present studies examine these consequences using, in the first study, a rumor transmission design and, in the second, group discussions. The first study demonstrates that stereotypes that are received from others are more extreme, contain less variability information, and have higher social consensus than stereotypes learned from contact with individual target group members. The second study demonstrates that stereotypes that are communicated and learned through informal group discussions manifest the same properties. We argue that stereotypes are fundamentally altered through social communication and these effects are in part responsible for the biases that stereotypes induce.
