COGNITIVE REPRESENTATION IN ETHNOPHAULISMS AND ILLUSORY CORRELATION IN STEREOTYPING

Previous research has examined complexity in ethnophaulisms as an indi cator of cognitive representations of minority ethnic groups. Smaller groups have been demonstrated to evoke greater prototype representatio ns, as evidenced in less complexity in the ethnophaulisms ascribed to these smaller groups. The present research extends this approach to th e study of developing stereotypes for novel ethnic groups in the disti nctiveness-based illusory correlation paradigm. Results of three studi es confirm that in the absence of any preconceived cognitive represent ations of, or evaluative responses toward, these novel groups, the mor e salient group is subject to greater prototype representation. In add ition, this greater prototype representation for the more salient grou p predicts the distinctiveness-based illusory correlation effect and t hereby predicts differential evaluations towards the ethnic groups. Th e implications of these results for the study of the distinctiveness-b ased illusory correlation paradigm in particular, and for cognitive re presentations of social groups in general, are discussed.