BASE RATES, STEREOTYPES, AND JUDGMENTAL ACCURACY

The base rate literature has an opposite twin in the social psychologi cal literature on stereotypes, which concludes that people use their p reexisting beliefs about probabilistic category attributes too much, r ather than not enough. This ironic discrepancy arises because beliefs about category attributes enhance accuracy when the beliefs are accura te and diminish accuracy when they are not. To determine the accuracy of base rate/stereotype beliefs requires research that addresses speci fic content.