INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CATEGORY ACCESSIBILITY AND CATEGORY-ASSOCIATED TRAIT ACCESSIBILITY ON JUDGMENTS OF INDIVIDUALS

Two experiments investigated the effects of priming either a social ca tegory label or category-associated traits on the categorization of in dividuals who could be considered members of either of two competing s ocial categories. It was hypothesized that priming a social category l abel would increase the use of the primed category in categorization j udgments, whereas priming category-associated traits along with the ca tegory label would decrease the use of the primed category. Supporting these hypotheses, the results of two experiments showed that categori zation judgments were assimilated to the primed category when only the category label was primed, but were contrasted away from the primed c ategory when category-associated traits were primed along with the cat egory label. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for social categorization and social stereo typing.