Familiarity Can Increase (and Decrease) Stereotyping: Heuristic Processing or Enhanced Knowledge Usability?

Abstract

The present study aims to resolve the apparent contraction between recent research showing that familiarity experiences may increase stereotyping and the common belief that familiarity should decrease stereotyping. We argue for a “usability” rather than a “heuristic processing” perspective and show that familiarity increases the usability of available information. When this information consists of a stereotype, or categorical information, stereotyping is increased; in the absence of such categorical information, however, stereotyping is decreased. These effects were shown in a classic person perception paradigm in which the familiarity with a target person and the information given about the target person were varied. In line with our usability hypothesis, familiarity led to more stereotyping when a stereotype was provided, whereas it led to less stereotyping when the integrating stereotype was omitted.