The Communication of Social Stereotypes: The Effects of Group Discussion and Information Distribution on Stereotypic Appraisals

Stereotypes are fundamentally social constructs, formulated & modified through discussion & interaction with others. The present studies examined the impact of group discussion on stereotypes. In both studies, groups of participants discussed their impressions about a hypothetical target group after having read behaviors performed by target group members. These behaviors included both stereotypic & counterstereotypic examples, & the distribution of these behaviors varied across discussion group members. In some groups only 1 member knew of the counterstereotypic behaviors; in other groups this information was distributed across all group members. In general, discussion led to a polarization of the target group stereotypes, but this effect was lessened when the counterstereotypic behaviors were concentrated in 1 group member. In this case, these counterstereotypic behaviors were discussed more & retained better. 4 Tables, 1 Figure, 50 References. [Copyright 2001 The American Psychological Association.]