Personality and Social Psychology Review

The present article reviews evidence for the malleability of automatic stereotypes and prejudice. In contrast to assumptions that such responses are fixed and inescapable , it is shown that automatic stereotypes and prejudice are influenced by, (a) self-and social motives, (b) specific strategies, (c) the perceiver's focus of attention , and (d) the configuration of stimulus cues. In addition, group members' individual characteristics are shown to influence the extent to which (global) stereotypes and prejudice are automatically activated. This evidence has significant implications for conceptions of automaticity, models of stereotyping and prejudice, and attitude representation. The review concludes with the description of an initial model of early social information processing. Given a thimbleful of facts we rush to make generalizations as large as a tub.... Life is short, and the demands upon us for practical adjustments so great, that we cannot let our ignorance detain us in our daily transactions. Psychologists have long recognized the ease with which perceivers use category-based knowledge Although stereotypes and prejudice may be socially abhorrent, they appear to be cognitively beneficial by allowing perceivers to process information and make Research conducted over the past 15 years, however, has suggested that such efficiency goes beyond the perceiver's cognitive laziness or strategic attempts to manage a complex environment. People may often not be aware of what they are doing, they might even intend to be doing something else; perhaps worst of all, the operation of stereotypes and prejudice may be outside of their control (Bargh, 1999). In one of the first demonstrations of the automatic operation of stereotypes, Gaertner and McLaughlin (1983) showed that participants were faster to identify paired letter strings if they were consistent rather than inconsistent with the stereotype of Black Americans (e.g., Blacks-lazy vs. Blacks-ambitious). A fewudice (CUSP) Laboratory for their insightful comments on an earlier draft of the article. I am especially grateful to the many researchers who shared their unpublished research with me. years later, Devine (1989) demonstrated that even sub-liminally presented cues could activate stereotypes, and furthermore, those activated stereotypes could influence interpersonal judgments. Today, over 100 studies have documented that Whites have automatic negative associations with Blacks (or other non-White groups), young adults have automatic negative associations with the elderly, and both men and women automatically associate males and females-as well as a variety of occupational and societal groups-with ste-relative ease of revealing these automatic associations, the strength and …