Affect, Cognition and Stereotyping

Interactive Processes in Group Perception

Diane M. Mackie, David L. Hamilton

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780080885797
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Personality in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This volume presents a collection of chapters exploring the interface of cognitive and affective processes in stereotyping. Stereotypes and prejudice have long been topics of interest in social psychology, but early literature and research in this area focused on affect alone, while later studies focused primarily on cognitive factors associated with information processing strategies. This volume integrates the roles of both affect and cognition with regard to the formation, representation, and modification of stereotypes and the implications of these processes for the escalation or amelioration of intergroup tensions. - Reviewed Development, maintenance, and change of stereotypes and prejudice - Interaction of affective and cognitive processes as antecendents of stereotyping and prejudice - Affect and cognitive consequences of group categorization, preception, and interaction - The interaction of cognitive and affective processes in social perception - Award Winning Chapter "The Esses et al", was the 1992 winner of the Otto Klineberg award given by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, which cited the chapter as having offered, "a substantial advance in our understanding of basic psychological processes, underlying racism, stereotyping, and prejudice."

Chapter 1

Cognitive and Affective Processes in Intergroup Perception: The Developing Interface

DAVID L. HAMILTON and DIANE M. MACKIE, Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California

Publisher Summary

This chapter discusses the evolving trends in psychology and their manifestations. During the period of cognitive preeminence, the study of affective factors—emotion, motivation, mood states, arousal, and the like—and their role in social psychological processes continued; however, quietly and without the prominence it had historically enjoyed. Research on these topics may have been a part of the ground, but it surely was not the figure on the social psychological landscape. However, there has been a resurgence of interest in affective processes, including increased study of their role in intergroup contexts. There are probably several reasons for this resurgence. The cognitively focused research of the past decade has, in many regard, transformed the way one thinks about the nature and the functioning of stereotypes. The renewed activity concerning affective processes promises to generate additional insights that the cognitive focus has overlooked. Thus, each of the developments, as a separate approach, is generating new excitement for the social psychology of intergroup relations.

Introduction

Two recent trends in psychology constitute the conceptual backdrop for the contributions to this volume. These two developments have evolved independently, each with its own origins and directions, and each with its own momentum. Yet they have converged at a time that offers new opportunities for advancing our knowledge of the dynamics underlying intergroup relations.

What are these developments? The first is the predominant emphasis on cognitive processes that has characterized American psychology during the last two decades. The second is a more recent revitalization of interest in the nature and role of affective processes in psychological functioning. Both of these trends have had widespread impact in diverse areas of psychological theory and research.

Separately, each of these developments has had important implications for current research on intergroup perceptions. But it is their coming together that feeds significantly into the chapters that comprise this volume, and that offers opportunities for new understanding of intergroup relations. In this introductory chapter we briefly discuss each of these evolving trends and their manifestations in and implications for intergroup research. We then preview the chapters comprising this volume, each of which reflects, in one form or another, the convergence of these developments.

Two Components of the Conceptual Backdrop

Cognition

The cognitive emphasis is evident throughout psychology and nowhere more so than in social psychology. During the last 15 years the social cognition emphasis has permeated the study of numerous substantive topics in our discipline, bringing with it a primary concern with identifying, measuring, and understanding the cognitive mediators underlying the social phenomena of interest.

From its beginning this approach was clearly evident in the literature on stereotyping and intergroup perception (cf. Allport, 1954; Hamilton, 1976). For example, the classic work of Tajfel (1969, 1970) demonstrated that intergroup discrimination, previously thought to rest on realistic conflict between groups, can derive from the mere categorization of persons into groups. Similarly Taylor’s (Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff, & Ruderman, 1978) research showed that a person’s context-based salience can affect observers’ differential attention to majority and minority individuals, with consequent effects on how those persons are perceived. And Hamilton’s (Hamilton & Gifford, 1976) research on illusory correlations showed that a cognitive bias in the way distinctive information is attended to and processed can result in the unwarranted differential perception of groups. These research programs provided an impetus to a renewed interest in the cognitive underpinnings of intergroup perception.

This early work, occurring mostly in the 1970s, was followed by more than a decade of research in which the cognitive approach to stereotyping was enthusiastically pursued. In some cases this research was designed to elucidate the role of cognitive processes underlying various intergroup judgments and behaviors. In other cases the research strategy was to push the cognitive analysis as far as it could go. That is, researchers tried to determine how well cognitive mechanisms alone could produce, and perhaps account for, judgmental and behavioral phenomena that had previously been viewed as due to more dynamic, motivational variables (cf. Dawes, 1976). This work examined the ramifications of cognitive processes for understanding intergroup differentiations, memory for group-relevant information, stereotype-based attributions, self-fulfilling prophecies, the persistence and change of stereotypic beliefs, and numerous other issues. This strategy was remarkably successful and often challenged prevailing viewpoints. The resulting literature is now voluminous (for reviews see Hamilton, Sherman, & Ruvolo, 1990; Messick & Mackie, 1989).

Affect

During this period of cognitive preeminence, the study of affective factors—emotion, motivation, mood states, arousal, and the like—and their role in social psychological processes continued, but quietly and without the prominence it had historically enjoyed. Research on these topics may have been part of the “ground,” but it surely was not the “figure” on the social psychological landscape.

Recently, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in affective processes, including increased study of their role in intergroup contexts. There are probably several reasons for this resurgence. Undoubtedly, it reflects in part the proverbial swing of the scientific pendulum; any one focus will be “hot” for only so long before interest shifts to what has been relatively neglected by the predominant emphasis. However, more substantial factors have also contributed to this shift. For example, the appearance of several new theoretical positions concerned with the nature, structure, and functioning of emotions has drawn attention to these issues (Frijda, 1988; Ortony, Clore & Collins, 1988; Roseman, 1984; Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, & O’Connor, 1987). In addition, a growing literature on affect and its impact on memory, and ultimately on cognitive processing more generally, has stirred debate (Bower, 1981; Ellis & Ashbrook, 1988; Forgas, 1990; Isen, 1984, 1987; Schwarz, 1990; Srull, 1983). And third, a major contributing factor has been the impressive technological advances made in psychophysiological measurement, permitting more precise assessment and monitoring of affectively driven variables (Cacioppo & Petty, 1983; Cacioppo, Petty, Losch, & Kim, 1986).

These developments would seem to have enormous implications for the study of intergroup perception. Despite their relative neglect in recent years, it has always seemed evident that significant affective responses arise spontaneously in many intergroup contexts. Certainly the history of intergroup relations is rich in evidence of intense emotional, even passionate, forces guiding the thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors of group members. Some intergroup contexts in and of themselves seem to generate affective reactions that can disrupt “normal” social interaction. Moreover, if our self-identities are wrapped up in our perceptions of our own and other groups, then the stereotypes we hold of outgroups are destined to be affectively laden.

These issues have not been adequately explored in empirical research. The theoretical advances and technological developments referred to earlier offer significant potential for furthering our knowledge of the affective components of stereotyping and prejudice.

The Developing Interface

Thus far we have argued that two developing emphases within psychology in recent years are important contributors to understanding intergroup perceptions. The cognitively focused research of the last decade has, in many respects, transformed our thinking about the nature and functioning of stereotypes. The renewed activity concerning affective processes promises to generate additional insights that the cognitive focus has overlooked. Thus each of these developments, as a separate approach, is generating new excitement for the social psychology of intergroup relations. But that is not enough.

Historically, affective and cognitive processes have been conceptualized as qualitatively different systems. In fact, it was not uncommon to consider the operation of these systems as mutually incompatible: the surge of impassioned affect struggled for dominance over the impassive mechanisms of cognitive calculation.

This view has also characterized much of the literature on intergroup perceptions. On the one hand, stereotypes have long been recognized as systems of beliefs about particular social groups, beliefs that could influence the nature of a perceiver’s perceptions of, inferences about, and reactions to group members. On the other hand, the affect associated with our conceptions of those groups was often seen as disrupting or short-circuiting (Brigham, 1971) our normal cognitive functioning when confronted with group members. As a consequence, most research on intergroup perception has reflected a focus on either affect or cognition, but not both.

But of course any approach adopting a singular focus on a multifaceted phenomenon will ultimately reach its limits. As one of us has commented elsewhere:

Any particular form of stereotyping or prejudice … is in all likelihood multiply determined by cognitive, motivational, and social learning processes, whose effects combine in a given social context to produce specific judgmental and behavioral manifestations. Therefore, any attempt to understand such phenomena as a product of one process alone is probably misguided. (Hamilton & Trolier, 1986, p. 153)

In fact, contemporary thinking about cognition and affect emphasizes a more integrative relationship between these two systems. Cognition has its impact on affect by constituting the appraisal processes that regulate the social and cultural interpretation of experienced emotion. At the same time, affect has its effects on judgments and behavior through its impact on cognitive processes. Affect activates motivations or goal states, which in turn influence the extent and nature of further processing. In addition, arousal level and affective states influence what information is attended to and what contents will be activated from memory, thereby exerting control over the raw material that becomes the grist for the information processing mill. Thus, affect and cognition are mutually interactive components of a broader system.

It is this view that is ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Cognitive and Affective Processes in Intergroup Perception: The Developing Interface
• Chapter 2: Emotions, Arousal, and Stereotypic Judgments: A Heuristic Model of Affect and Stereotyping
• Chapter 3: The Influence of Affect on Stereotyping: The Case of Illusory Correlations
• Chapter 4: Affect and Perceived Group Variability: Implications for Stereotyping and Prejudice
• Chapter 5: The Role of Anxiety in Facilitating Stereotypic Judgments of Outgroup Behavior
• Chapter 6: Cognition and Affect in Stereotyping: Parallel Interactive Networks
• Chapter 7: Values, Stereotypes, and Emotions as Determinants of Intergroup Attitudes
• Chapter 8: Stereotypes and Evaluative Intergroup Bias
• Chapter 9: Mere Exposure Effects with Outgroup Stimuli
• Chapter 10: Applications of Emotion Theory and Research to Stereotyping and Intergroup Relations
• Chapter 11: Negative Interdependence and Prejudice: Whence the Affect?
• Chapter 12: Stereotyping and Affect in Discourse: Interpreting the Meaning of Elderly, Painful Self-Disclosure
• Chapter 13: Social Identity and Social Emotions: Toward New Conceptualizations of Prejudice
• Chapter 14: The Role of Discrepancy-Associated Affect in Prejudice Reduction
• Chapter 15: Social Stigma: The Consequences of Attributional Ambiguity
• Chapter 16: Affect, Cognition, and Stereotyping: Concluding Comments
• Index