Asymmetries in the perception of other as a function of social position and context

Abstract

In two experiments an adaptation of the paradigm developed by Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff & Ruderman (1978) was used to investigate the impact of contextual factors on the accentuation effect, and asymmetries in the outgroup homogeneity effect as a function of relative group status. In both experiments targets were categorized on the basis of highly salient physical features, which also evoke asymmetric positions in intergroup relations: skin colour in experiment 1 and sex in experiment 2. In experiment 1, with black and white participants, context was manipulated by introducing topics of discussion which were relevant (interethnic relations) or irrelevant (student university life) to the categorization, whereas in experiment 2, with female and male participants, the relevant topic of discussion was dating relationships and the irrelevant one as in the previous experiment. The results show that the accentuation effect was affected by context in experiment 1, but not in experiment 2, and the outgroup homogeneity effect was not symmetrical. Overall, target members of subordinate groups, blacks in experiment 1 and females in experiment 2, were more homogenized than target members of dominant groups, whites in experiment 1 and males in experiment 2.