Effects of perceived group variability on the gathering of information about individual group members

We examined the influence of perceived group variability on the use of ster eotypes to gather information about individual group members. Participants provided judgments indicating how variable and how negatively they perceive d Blacks in the United States. Then, more than 2 months later in an ostensi bly unrelated study, the same participants generated questions concerning a mbiguously aggressive behaviors performed by Black and White schoolchildren . Overall, participants who perceived Blacks to be more dispersed asked abo ut a wider range of attributes and expressed greater uncertainty about the responses they expected to receive to the questions they generated. These e ffects were independent of the effects of prejudice, which was associated w ith increased certainty. (C) 2000 Academic Press.