Hammond Matthew D, Cimpian Andrei
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2017 May;146(5):607-614. doi: 10.1037/xge0000297.
Stereotypes are typically defined as beliefs about groups, but this definition is underspecified. Beliefs about groups can be generic or statistical. Generic beliefs attribute features to entire groups (e.g., men are strong), whereas statistical beliefs encode the perceived prevalence of features (e.g., how common it is for men to be strong). In the present research, we sought to determine which beliefs-generic or statistical-are more central to the cognitive structure of stereotypes. Specifically, we tested whether generic or statistical beliefs are more influential in people's social judgments, on the assumption that greater functional importance indicates greater centrality in stereotype structure. Relative to statistical beliefs, generic beliefs about social groups were significantly stronger predictors of expectations (Studies 1-3) and explanations (Study 4) for unfamiliar individuals' traits. In addition, consistent with prior evidence that generic beliefs are cognitively simpler than statistical beliefs, generic beliefs were particularly predictive of social judgments for participants with more intuitive (vs. analytic) cognitive styles and for participants higher (vs. lower) in authoritarianism, who tend to view outgroups in simplistic, all-or-none terms. The present studies suggest that generic beliefs about groups are more central than statistical beliefs to the cognitive structure of stereotypes. (PsycINFO Database Record
刻板印象通常被定义为对群体的看法，但这个定义不够明确。对群体的看法可以是一般性的或统计性的。一般性看法将特征归因于整个群体（例如，男人很强壮），而统计性看法则编码了特征的感知流行程度（例如，男人强壮的普遍程度）。在本研究中，我们试图确定哪种看法——一般性的还是统计性的——在刻板印象的认知结构中更核心。具体来说，我们测试了一般性看法还是统计性看法在人们的社会判断中更具影响力，假设更大的功能重要性表明在刻板印象结构中更核心。相对于统计性看法，关于社会群体的一般性看法是对陌生个体特征的期望（研究1 - 3）和解释（研究4）的更强预测指标。此外，与先前的证据一致，即一般性看法在认知上比统计性看法更简单，一般性看法对于具有更直观（相对于分析性）认知风格的参与者以及威权主义程度较高（相对于较低）的参与者的社会判断尤其具有预测性，这些人倾向于以简单化的、非此即彼的方式看待外群体。本研究表明，关于群体的一般性看法在刻板印象的认知结构中比统计性看法更核心。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
