Williams Keelah E G, Sng Oliver, Neuberg Steven L
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Jan 12;113(2):310-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1519401113. Epub 2015 Dec 28.
Why do race stereotypes take the forms they do? Life history theory posits that features of the ecology shape individuals' behavior. Harsh and unpredictable ("desperate") ecologies induce fast strategy behaviors such as impulsivity, whereas resource-sufficient and predictable ("hopeful") ecologies induce slow strategy behaviors such as future focus. We suggest that individuals possess a lay understanding of ecology's influence on behavior, resulting in ecology-driven stereotypes. Importantly, because race is confounded with ecology in the United States, we propose that Americans' stereotypes about racial groups actually reflect stereotypes about these groups' presumed home ecologies. Study 1 demonstrates that individuals hold ecology stereotypes, stereotyping people from desperate ecologies as possessing faster life history strategies than people from hopeful ecologies. Studies 2-4 rule out alternative explanations for those findings. Study 5, which independently manipulates race and ecology information, demonstrates that when provided with information about a person's race (but not ecology), individuals' inferences about blacks track stereotypes of people from desperate ecologies, and individuals' inferences about whites track stereotypes of people from hopeful ecologies. However, when provided with information about both the race and ecology of others, individuals' inferences reflect the targets' ecology rather than their race: black and white targets from desperate ecologies are stereotyped as equally fast life history strategists, whereas black and white targets from hopeful ecologies are stereotyped as equally slow life history strategists. These findings suggest that the content of several predominant race stereotypes may not reflect race, per se, but rather inferences about how one's ecology influences behavior.
种族刻板印象为何呈现出它们现有的形式？生命史理论假定生态特征塑造个体行为。恶劣且不可预测（“绝望”）的生态环境会引发冲动等快速策略行为，而资源充足且可预测（“有希望”）的生态环境会引发关注未来等缓慢策略行为。我们认为个体对生态环境对行为的影响有一种常识性理解，从而产生了由生态环境驱动的刻板印象。重要的是，由于在美国种族与生态环境相互混淆，我们提出美国人对种族群体的刻板印象实际上反映了对这些群体假定的原生生态环境的刻板印象。研究1表明个体持有生态环境刻板印象，将来自绝望生态环境的人刻板化为比来自有希望生态环境的人拥有更快的生命史策略。研究2至4排除了这些发现的其他解释。研究5独立操纵种族和生态环境信息，结果表明，当提供一个人的种族信息（而非生态环境信息）时，个体对黑人的推断符合对来自绝望生态环境的人的刻板印象，而个体对白人的推断符合对来自有希望生态环境的人的刻板印象。然而，当同时提供他人的种族和生态环境信息时，个体的推断反映的是目标对象的生态环境而非其种族：来自绝望生态环境的黑人和白人目标对象被刻板化为生命史策略同样快速，而来自有希望生态环境的黑人和白人目标对象被刻板化为生命史策略同样缓慢。这些发现表明，几种主要的种族刻板印象的内容可能本身并不反映种族，而是关于一个人的生态环境如何影响行为的推断。
