PERSON MEMORY IN INTERGROUP CONTEXTS - CATEGORIZATION VERSUS INDIVIDUATION

Three experiments were conducted to assess the effects of perceiver gr oup identity and expectancies on whether social information is organiz ed at the level of the individual or the social category. In all 3 exp eriments, participants viewed a videotaped discussion among 6 people w hose category identity was signified by sweatshirt color. In Experimen t 1, performance on an identification test was affected by meaningfuln ess of the category distinction. Results of Experiment 2 indicated tha t intracategory confusions were higher under conditions of competitive interdependence between groups than under mere categorization or cate gory salience conditions alone. Experiment 3 demonstrated that members of the minority categories are individuated less than members of majo rity categories, except by members of the minority in-group. Results o f the 3 experiments are discussed in relation to the concept of percei ved ''entitativity'' of social categories.