Stereotypic Trait Disconfirmation and Positive-Negative Asymmetry

Spanish high school students participated in two studies on stereotypical trait disconfirmation. The students were presented with information about typical members of a relevant social category who exhibited a counterstereotypical trait. In the first study, the disconfirmation of a positive trait caused a decline in the participants' use of this trait to describe the social category as a whole, and the participants generalized counter-stereotypical information to the group as a whole more readily when this information was evaluatively consistent with their attitudes toward the group. In the second study, the disconfirmation of a negative trait had no effect on the participants' description of the target group. The results of the two studies are discussed in the context of positive-negative asymmetry.