Gordon B. Moskowitz

Perspective-taking: decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility, and in-group favoritism.

Using 3 experiments, the authors explored the role of perspective-taking in debiasing social thought. In the 1st 2 experiments, perspective-taking was contrasted with stereotype suppression as a possible strategy for achieving stereotype control. In Experiment 1, perspective-taking decreased stereotypic biases on both a conscious and a nonconscious task. In Experiment 2, perspective-taking led to both decreased stereotyping and increased overlap between representations of the self and representations of the elderly, suggesting activation and application of the self-concept in judgments of the elderly. In Experiment 3, perspective-taking reduced evidence of in-group bias in the minimal group paradigm by increasing evaluations of the out-group. The role of self-other overlap in producing prosocial outcomes and the separation of the conscious, explicit effects from the nonconscious, implicit effects of perspective-taking are discussed.

Preconscious control of stereotype activation through chronic egalitarian goals

This research shows stereotype activation is controlled by chronic egalitarian goals. In the first 2 studies it was found that the stereotype of women is equally available to individuals with and without chronic goals, and the discriminant validity of the concept of egalitarian goals was established. In the next 2 experiments, differences in stereotype activation as a function of this individual difference were found. In Study 3, participants read attributes following stereotypical primes. Facilitated response times to stereotypical attributes were found for nonchronics but not for chronics. This lack of facilitation occurred at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) where effortful correction processes could not operate, demonstrating preconscious control of stereotype activation due to chronic goals. In Study 4, inhibition of the stereotype was found at an SOA where effortful processes of stereotype suppression could not operate. The data reveal that goals are activated and used preconsciously to prevent stereotype activation, demonstrating both the controllability of stereotype activation and the implicit role of goals in cognitive control.

People as Flexible Interpreters: Evidence and Issues from Spontaneous Trait Inference

Publisher Summary This chapter investigates the ways in which readily inferences about others occur when inferences are not the focal task. The evidence and issues from spontaneous trait inference (STI) are also discussed in the chapter. STI occurs when attending to another persons behavior produces a trait inference in the absence of explicit intention to infer traits or form an impression of that person. Seven different paradigms have been employed to detect and investigate spontaneous trait inference: (1) cued recall under memory instructions; (2) cued recall of distractors; (3) recognition probe; (4) lexical decision; (5) delayed recognition; (6) word stem completion; and (7) relearning. Informational conditions review the ways in which the trait-relevant information presented in STI studies is systematically varied and its effects. The treatment of cognitive conditions focuses on the efficiency of STI and its minimal demands on cognitive capacity. The motivational conditions are divided into: proximal and distal goals. The chapter also explores whether STI refers to actors or merely to behaviors and the consequences of STI based on awareness, priming, prediction, and correspondence bias.

Crowded minds: The implicit bystander effect

Five studies merged the priming methodology with the bystander apathy literature and demonstrate how merely priming a social context at Time 1 leads to less helping behavior on a subsequent, completely unrelated task at Time 2. In Study 1, participants who imagined being with a group at Time 1 pledged significantly fewer dollars on a charity-giving measure at Time 2 than did those who imagined being alone with one other person. Studies 2-5 build converging evidence with hypothetical and real helping behavior measures and demonstrate that participants who imagine the presence of others show facilitation to words associated with unaccountable on a lexical decision task. Implications for social group research and the priming methodology are discussed.

Individual differences in social categorization: The influence of personal need for structure on spontaneous trait inferences.

Because 1 function of categorization is to provide structure and control to social interactions and because individuals differ in the extent to which they desire control and structure, individual differences in personal need for structure (PNS) should moderate the extent to which people categorize. Spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) were used to assess the use of traits in categorization. High-PNS Ss were more likely to form STIs and more likely to recall names of target actors in the stimulus sentences. This research provides evidence for the organization of behavioral information in person nodes in circumstances where processing goals did not explicitly request such organization

The interplay of heuristic and systematic processing of social information.

The heuristic-systematic model (HSM) provides a general theory of social information processing. It features two modes of social information processing, a relatively effortless, top-down heuristic mode and a more effortful, bottom-up systematic mode. The model assumes that social perceivers strike a balance between effort minimization and achieving confidence in their social judgments. The HSM emphasizes three broad motivational forces: accuracy, defence, and impression motivation. Both heuristic and systematic processing can serve either of the three motives and are capable of co-occurring in an additive or interactive fashion under specified conditions. In this chapter, we describe the HSM and present illustrative research based on the model in the areas of mood and persuasion as well as minority influence.

The Implicit Volition Model: On the Preconscious Regulation of Temporarily Adopted Goals

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on preconscious triggering and pursuit of temporarily adopted goals. It introduces seeming paradoxes of preconscious control, such as the notions of unintended intentions and uncontrolled control, and examines the theory and evidence that provides the rationale and support for the preconscious regulation of temporary goals. There are three theoretical points that provide the basis for implicit volition model: goals are knowledge structures that can be triggered by relevant cues in the environment without the persons awareness that any given knowledge structure has attained a state of heightened fluency or accessibility; goal can come to be automatically activated through frequent and habitual pairing of specific goals with specific features of the environment; and an aversive state is experienced when a goal has not been met. The chapter determines that a goal can be consciously selected but trigger implicit processes regulating movement toward successfully attaining the goal. The goal itself can be implicitly triggered and lead to both explicit and implicit operations aimed at goal attainment.

Non-conscious bias in medical decision making: what can be done to reduce it?

Medical Education 2011: 45: 768–776

Contrast effects as determined by the type of prime : Trait versus exemplar primes initiate processing strategies that differ in how accessible constructs are used

In 4 experiments it was found that contrast effects in person perception depend on the type and extremity of the primed information. Two previous models of priming effects, the standard-of-comparison and the set-reset models, make opposing predictions for the consequences of prime extremity on contrast effects. In Experiments 1 and 2 it was found that each model is descriptively accurate but in response to different priming stimuli. Exemplar primes (e.g., Dracula) produced greater contrast when extreme than when moderate, a pattern consistent with the standard-of-comparison model. Trait term primes (e.g., malevolent) produced greater contrast when moderate than when extreme, which is consistent with the set-reset model. In Experiments 3 and 4 it was demonstrated that the mechanisms through which contrast is produced are distinct for the 2 types of primes. Standard-of-comparison contrast is more perceptual and is not disrupted by cognitive load; set-reset contrast is effortful and requires sufficient cognitive capacity.

Implicit Stereotyping and Medical Decisions: Unconscious Stereotype Activation in Practitioners' Thoughts About African Americans

OBJECTIVES We investigated whether stereotypes unconsciously influence the thinking and behavior of physicians, as they have been shown to do in other professional settings, such as among law enforcement personnel and teachers. METHODS We conducted 2 studies to examine whether stereotypes are implicitly activated in physicians. Study 1 assessed what diseases and treatments doctors associate with African Americans. Study 2 presented these (and control terms) to doctors as part of a computerized task. Subliminal images of African American and White men appeared prior to each word, and reaction times to words were recorded. RESULTS When primed with an African American face, doctors reacted more quickly for stereotypical diseases, indicating an implicit association of certain diseases with African Americans. These comprised not only diseases African Americans are genetically predisposed to, but also conditions and social behaviors with no biological association (e.g., obesity, drug abuse). CONCLUSIONS We found implicit stereotyping among physicians; faces they never consciously saw altered performance. This suggests that diagnoses and treatment of African American patients may be biased, even in the absence of the practitioners intent or awareness.