Term of Award

Summer 1995

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Psychology

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

John D. Murray

Committee Member 1

William D. McIntosh

Committee Member 2

Richard L. Rogers

Abstract

Devine's (1989) model of stereotyping holds that the stereotype of African-Americans (the "black" stereotype) is automatically activated upon presentation of a member of the stereotyped group. Devine conducted three studies to provide empirical support for her model, and found that the black stereotype was automatically activated in white subjects, regardless of their prejudice level. The aim of the present study was to extend Devine's findings to include members of the stereotyped group, in this case African-Americans. Half of the black and white subjects were primed with the black stereotype and half were unprimed. All subjects subsequently gave trait ratings on a target whose behavior was ambiguously hostile. White subjects were then given a racism scale; black subjects were given a scale measuring racial identity. Although prejudice level was not expected to have an effect, only primed low-prejudice subjects rated the target in a stereotype-relevant manner; high-prejudice whites did not. The priming effect also did not appear in African-Americans, nor did the racial identity measure predict stereotype-relevant trait ratings. Across conditions, hostility ratings of blacks were higher than those of whites.

Copyright

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