Warmth and competence in implicit stereotypes and discrimination

It is well established that we do not judge other people on a one-dimensional scale (i.e., good - bad), but rather based on two fundamental dimensions. The first dimension is warmth, which essentially answers the questions of what the other person’s intentions are (e.g., friendly or malicious). The second dimension is competence, which in contrast answers the question regarding the person’s capability to carry out those intentions. The stereotype content model (SCM; Fiske, Cuddy, Glick & Xu, 2002) suggests that these two dimensions are not only relevant for person-perception, but also for intergroup bias. Some groups are stereotyped as both warm and competent (e.g., the majority population or the ingroup) or neither warm or competent (e.g., an ethnic minority). Some groups have mixed stereotypes: warm, but not competent (e.g., Greeks), or competent but not warm (e.g. Germans). There is already considerable research supporting the SCM. Yet, these studies have so far focused almost exclusively on self-reported stereotypes and prejudice. The present thesis aimed to extend this research by focusing on two unexplored areas where a warmth and competence perspective might prove useful: implicit stereotypes and discrimination. Study I showed that it is possible to capture mixed stereotypes (in terms of warmth and competence) using the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998). The study also provides some preliminary indication of the usefulness of this approach. Specifically, whereas the implicit measures were sensitive to ingroup bias, the explicit measures were not. Study II demonstrated that mixed stereotypes translate into mixed discrimination. Across two experiments, groups that are stereotyped as warm but not competent (preschool teachers and Greeks) were discriminated in a competence paradigm, but favored in an empathy (warmth) paradigm. In contrast, groups who are stereotyped as cold but competent (lawyers, Germans) were favored in the competence paradigm, but discriminated in the empathy paradigm. Importantly, a one-dimensional perspective failed to find any indication of discrimination, since the groups were treated equally if the two dimensions were collapsed. Study III investigated real-life hiring discrimination in a field experiment. Fictive applications were sent to 5,636 job openings. By experimentally varying whether the applicant had an Arab or Swedish sounding male name, and whether he appeared warm and/or competent in the personal letter, we were able to investigate how individuating information related to warmth and competence interacts with ethnic hiring discrimination. We found substantial discrimination in that Arab applicants received fewer invitations to job interviews. Consistent with the stereotype content of Arabs, an applicant with an Arab sounding name had to appear both warm and competent in order to increase his chances. Interestingly, in order to be on (almost) equal terms as an applicant with a Swedish sounding name, he had to be both warmer and more competent. In conclusion, the present thesis suggest that much is to be gained from viewing intergroup bias from a two-dimensional perspective, regardless if the focus is on implicit stereotypes or on discrimination. Researchers in implicit stereotypes who do not consider warmth and competence may haphazardly conclude that a group is either negatively or positively stereotyped, when the implicit stereotype is actually mixed (e.g., warm but not competent). The same is true for discrimination, which can also be mixed in terms of warmth and competence. Furthermore, even when studying discrimination toward groups that are clearly stereotyped as altogether bad, a one-dimensional perspective may still lack precision. Indeed, it was not enough for an applicant with an Arab sounding name to appear warm or competent: he had to appear simultaneously warm and competent if he were to increase his chances to receive job interviews. Hence, it would appear that intergroup bias is a too complex phenomenon to be understood as simply good or bad

Ethnicity and obesity: evidence of implicit work performance stereotypes in Sweden

Using the Implicit Association Test, we investigate whether employers and students possess implicit and explicit negative attitudes and implicit performance stereotypes toward Arab-Muslim men relative to native Swedish men. We also examine if employers and students have implicit and explicit performance stereotypes toward obese individuals relative to people of normal weight. The results demonstrate that employers and students both implicitly and explicitly associate Arab-Muslim men with less work performance. Also, they have more implicit negative attitudes toward this ethnic group. Obese individuals are both implicitly and explicitly associated with less work performance compared with normal-weight individuals.Implicit; attitudes; stereotypes; discrimination; ethnicity; obesity

Fire impact in the wood quality and a fertilization experiment in Eucalyptus plantations in Guangxi, southern China

Chinas government has a multifunctional program for a more sustainable forestry since 2000. This six key forest programs goal is to develop a more sustainable forest sector but also take environment consideration. The state forest administration in China has decided to create 5.8 million hectare of fast growing and high yield forest. Eucalyptus has showed to have good properties for pulp and timber production and therefore Eucalyptus plantations are under development in costal areas in southern China. By adding extra nutrients, growth can be enhanced in Eucalyptus plantations. The purpose of this fertilization trial is to see the possible effects on growth in different fertilization treatments. This thesis is a part of a series of experiment conducted on the site the past years. The whole trial will be summarized the coming years. Treatment NPK 300-B had after 44 month the highest CAI of 47 m3 ha-1, year-1. The lowest CAI had treatment NK-90 with 30 m3 ha-1, year-1.Highest standing volume has treatment NPK- 300-B (131 m3 ha-1) followed by NPK-150-B (126 m3 ha-1). Four treatments are very close to each other and range between 110-119 m3 ha-1. The treatment with the lowest volume was NK-90 (96 m3 ha-1) followed by control treatment (101 m3 ha-1). Despite extra phosphorus the trial has not reach the target ratio for this nutrient and because of this the trail has potential for higher growth. No visual effect was visible on the root system between broadcast and string applied fertilizer. Fires impact on wood quality has also been investigated in this study. The aim is also to evaluate the economic impact a fire can have in a stand. Fire damaged trees from three damage classes were dissected in three ways; as Chips, planks and discs to evaluate quality. The quality problems that were found were charcoal remains. These were located 3-4 m up in trees and seem to be randomly spread among the trees. Presence of gum were also found but it seems not to be a problem in the pulp process. The study indicates that it is hard to avoid charcoal in timber by judging only the surface and the size of the fire scars to estimate quality. Best revenue has veneer in treatment NPK-150 B 58965 RMB/ ha-1 followed by NPK- 100 but in pulp and chipboard alternative best revenue were found in treatment NPK-100. Pulp had 40431 RMB/ ha-1 and chipboard had 5425 RMB/ ha-

Relationen mellan employer branding och identitetsskapande i organisationer - en fallstudie av ett svenskt industriföretag

Studien visar att employer branding kan leda till en splittrad organisationsidentitet, uttryckt via en motsättning mellan ledningens employer branding-diskurs och anställdas interna diskurs. Detta indikerar att employer branding inte alltid spelar den roll som konceptet är avsett att göra.The study shows that employer branding can lead to a fragmented organizational identity, expressed through a conflict between the employer branding discourse held by management, and the internal discourse held by employees. This indicates that employer branding does not always play the role that it is intended to do

A Primer on the benefits of differential treatment analysis when predicting discriminatory behavior

A central question in social psychology is to what extent individual differences in attitudes, prejudices, and stereotypes can predict discriminatory behavior. This is often studied by simply regressing a measure of behavior toward a single group (e.g., behavior toward Black people only) onto the predictors (e.g., attitude measures). In the present paper, we remind researchers that an analysis focusing on predicting the differential treatment (e.g., behavior towards Black people vs. White people) has a higher conceptual validity and will result in more informative effect sizes. The paper is concluded with a list of suggestions for future research on the link between attitudes, prejudices, stereotypes and discrimination

Ambivalent stereotypes link to peace, conflict, and inequality across 38 nations

A cross-national study, 49 samples in 38 nations (n = 4,344), investigates whether national peace and conflict reflect ambivalent warmth and competence stereotypes: High-conflict societies (Pakistan) may need clearcut, unambivalent group images distinguishing friends from foes. Highly peaceful countries (Denmark) also may need less ambivalence because most groups occupy the shared national identity, with only a few outcasts. Finally, nations with intermediate conflict (United States) may need ambivalence to justify more complex intergroup-system stability. Using the Global Peace Index to measure conflict, a curvilinear (quadratic) relationship between ambivalence and conflict highlights how both extremely peaceful and extremely conflictual countries display lower stereotype ambivalence, whereas countries intermediate on peace-conflict present higher ambivalence. These data also replicated a linear inequality-ambivalence relationship.Peer reviewe