ACTIVATING SOCIAL STEREOTYPES - A FUNCTIONAL-ANALYSIS

The present research investigated the effects of thinking about a cate gory label on the case with which perceivers could process stereotype- related information on subsequent tasks. Study 1 investigated the ease with which subjects could detect degraded stereotypic traits, Study 2 the ease with which these traits could be located in a complex stimul us array, and Study 3 the efficiency with which they could be represen ted in memory. In each case, subjects who had previously had their ste reotypes activated showed more efficient processing of the trait terms . These results demonstrate the extent to which category activation pr oduces an information-processing advantage for stereotypical traits. D iscussion centers upon these processing advantages and their implicati ons for our understanding of stereotypical thinking. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.