Contrast from social stereotypes in automatic behavior q

The activation of social stereotypes can influence behavior outside of conscious awareness. It has been argued that while priming social stereotypes leads to behavioral assimilation, priming exemplars leads to behavioral contrast. Extending this theorizing, we argue that the activation of social stereotypes can also result in automatic behavioral contrast if a comparison of the self to the stereotyped group is provoked. This hypothesis is tested with speed and intellectual performance as behavioral measures. In a first study, we show that categorizing perceived others as outgroup members leads to behavioral contrast from their stereotype. The second study shows that subliminally priming the self during the activation of a stereotype to which the self does not belong leads to automatic behavioral contrast from the stereotype. These findings reverse previously found assimilation effects of social stereotype priming. Social comparison processes are discussed as a possible mediator of the results. 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. Stereotypes vs. exemplars as primes of automatic behavior A number of stunning findings from the past years have shown that behavior can be unconsciously influenced by the priming of social stereotypes. That is, the activation of social stereotypes can lead people to unintendedly act in line with traits typical for the stereotype. According to Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996) this should be the case, because the activation of stereotypes increases the accessibility of the associated mental representations of behavior, and accessible behaviors are more likely to be performed spontaneously. Within this field of research, two behaviors have been particularly well studied: slow behavior as a result of This research was supported by a scholarship of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes awarded to the first author. We thank Markus Brauer, Am elie Mummendey, Russell Spears, Sven Waldzus, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts. Our special gratitude goes to Thomas Mussweiler for his consultation for Study 2. We also thank Katherina Wicklein, Frank Wieber, Jan Crusius, Atilla H€ ofling, Alex F€ uller, and Odile Jagsch for their assistance in the data collection. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: schubert@igroup.org (T.W. Schubert). 0022-1031/$ see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights res doi:10.1016/S0022-1031(03)00034-9 priming of the elderly stereotype, and intelligent (or dumb) behavior as a result of priming professors (or supermodels; for a review, see Dijksterhuis & Bargh, 2001). However, several studies have shown that priming single exemplars can lead to behavioral contrast instead of assimilation (Dijksterhuis et al., 1998; Dijksterhuis, Spears, & L epinasse, 2001): Participants walked faster after a single elderly person, the Dutch Queen Mother, was primed. Likewise, thinking about an extreme exemplar of the professor category, Albert Einstein, decreased intellectual performance. Dijksterhuis and colleagues proposed a model with two parallel processes to integrate these seemingly controversial findings: In a first process, ‘‘activation of a stereotype should [. ] evoke assimilation in behavior’’ (Dijksterhuis et al., 2001, p. 287) via a perception-behavior link, with the stereotypical knowledge rendering stereotypic behavior more accessible and therefore more likely. In a second process, ‘‘the salience of an exemplar judged against this interpretative background should elicit contrast against the stereotype’’ (Dijksterhuis et al., 2001, p. 287), because it elicits a comparison between this exemplar and the self. In short, stereotype priming was assumed to lead to behavioral assimilation, and exemplar priming was assumed to lead to behavioral contrast.