M. Brauer et al., The communication of social stereotypes: The effects of group discussion and information distribution on stereotypic appraisals, J PERS SOC, 81(3), 2001, pp. 463-475
Stereotypes are fundamentally social constructs, formulated and modified th
rough discussion and interaction with others. The present studies examined
the impact of group discussion on stereotypes. In both studies, groups of p
articipants discussed their impressions about a hypothetical target group a
fter having read behaviors performed by target group members. These behavio
rs included both stereotypic and counterstereotypic examples, and the distr
ibution of these behaviors varied across discussion group members. In some
groups only 1 member knew of the counterstereotypic behaviors; in other gro
ups this information was distributed across all group members. In general,
discussion led to a polarization of the target group stereotypes, but this
effect was lessened when the counterstereotypic behaviors were concentrated
in I group member, In this case, these counterstereotypic behaviors were d
iscussed more and retained better.