PROCESSING OF CATEGORICAL AND INDIVIDUATING INFORMATION IN INTERGROUP PERCEPTION : RESPONSE MEASUREMENT AND GENDER DIFFERENCES

Abstract

Categorical (race and gender) and individuating (outcome) information were manipulated realistically in a newspaper report to study intergroup perception. In addition to the superordinate categories of race and gender, there was information about subordinate categories of , and type of residence, occupation, and place of work of the character. One hundred and 92 Chinese undergraduate students (96 men and 96 women) read a story, judged competence of, and attraction toward the character, and later on recalled the superordinate and subordinate categories of the character. Since the order in which competence and attraction are measured also affects discrimination, the order of response measurements was one independent variable. Social status of the participants was another independent variable. Three hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis I was that soliciting competence responses before attraction ones (Order 1) results an in-group focus, but the reverse order (Order 2) of soliciting responses invokes an out-group focus. Hypothesis 2 was that high social status participants (i.e., men) are out-group focused but low status ones (i.e., women) are in-group focused. Hypothesis 3 pertained to the positive-negative asymmetry: That negative information is better recalled than positive information. Results from the paper-and-pencil and recall measures supported Hypotheses 1 and 2, and those from the recall measures supported Hypothesis 3. Results showed that attention paid to the categorical and individuating information about a character depends upon the content and order of responses solicited and the social status of the perceivers themselves. Implications of the findings are discussed for the models of cross-categorization effects and for future research in intergroup perception.