PSYB57H3 Lecture Notes - Mock Interview, Confirmation Bias, Impression Formation
Document Summary
How is it possible for a person who is racist to vote for someone who is black. Allows for maintenance of stereotypes and prejudice. Can still dislike a group but like certain people that belong to that group. Humans have developed cognitive tools" allowing us to analyze social environment efficiently. Stereotypes are one of these tools"; they allow us to forego effortful individuation, make useful predictions, when taxed, people use stereotypes. Task 1 impression formation: name followed by 10 trait terms half given a stereotypic label (eg. doctor, artist, skinhead) half given no label half of the traits were stereotypic, half neutral. Task 2 information monitoring ps. heard a 2 minute passage on indonesia. Dv: recall of traits with appropriate targets: performance on multiple-choice test on passage. Results confirmed predictions: stereotypes improved recall for stereotypic and neutral items improved mc performance. Reason why stereotypes are maintained save cognitive resources, helps manage our day without getting too stressed out.
