A. Vanknippenberg et A. Dijksterhuis, A-POSTERIORI STEREOTYPE ACTIVATION - THE PRESERVATION OF STEREOTYPES THROUGH MEMORY DISTORTION, Social cognition, 14(1), 1996, pp. 21-53
Four experiments investigated memory for stereotype-consistent and ste
reotype-inconsistent information after a posteriori stereotype activat
ion. in Experiment 1 it was established that, in comparison with a no
stereotype control condition, recall of stereotype-inconsistent behavi
ors of group members deteriorated after a posteriori stereotype activa
tion, while recall of stereotype-consistent information was not affect
ed. An explanation of this phenomenon in terms of the memory organizat
ion of behaviors in trait-behavior clusters was tested in Experiment 2
. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that recall of stereotype-incons
istent behaviors suffered from a stereotype activated afterwards when
they were stored in a separate trait (i.e., not linked to stereotype-c
onsistent behaviors), white stereotype-inconsistent information that w
as linked to stereotype-consistent information did not. In Experiment
3 the same pattern of results was obtained when an a posteriori stereo
type was activated using an ''unrelated prime'' (i.e., the stereotype
did not pertain to information presented earlier), suggesting the oper
ation of involuntary, unconscious processes in deteriorated recall of
stereotype-inconsistent information. Finally, the results of Experimen
t 4 provide evidence for the idea that the impaired recall of stereoty
pe-inconsistent information may be, at least partly, ascribed to suppr
essed access to stereotype-inconsistent traits due to a posteriori ste
reotype activation.