Evaluative Processing of Racial Stereotypes / Nancy J. Evans and John F. Dovidio.

Social stereotypes appear to play a role in social cognition similar to the role proposed for prototypes in nonsocial information processing. To explore whether racial primes would differentially facilitate response to positive and negative evaluative words, 32 male and female white college students were presented with a black or white prime and asked to make decisions about evaluative words not associated with traditional racial stereotypes. Results were generally consistent with Brewer's (1979) conclusion that intergroup bias is frequently characterized by in-group favoritism rather than by out-group derogation. White subjects responded more quickly to positively rated words after a prime of white than after a prime of black, suggesting that a favorable evaluation, along with traits rated stereotypically white, is part of the representation of the white category. Response to negative traits showed no significant speed differences after white or black primes. The findings indicate that positive attributes come to mind more quickly when thinking of whites. While associations with blacks are apparently no longer negative, racial bias associated with stereotyping continues to exist. (JAC)

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