Sheikh, Anees A

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Marquette Universitye-Publications@MarquettePsychology Faculty Research and Publications Psychology, Department of1-1-1968Stereotypy in Interpersonal Perception andIntercorrelation between Some Attitude MeasuresAnees A. SheikhMarquette University, anees.sheikh@marquette.eduAccepted version. The Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 76, No. 2 (1968): 175-179. DOI. © 1968Taylor & Francis. Used with permission.                                                                                                        Marquette Universitye-Publications@MarquettePsychology Faculty Research and Publications/College of Arts and SciencesThis paper is NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; but the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. Thepublished version may be accessed by following the link in the citation below.The Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 76, No. 2 (1968): 175-1679. DOI. This article is © Taylor & Francisand permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette. Taylor &Francis does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewherewithout the express permission from Taylor & Francis. STEREOTYPY IN INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION ANDINTERCORRELATION BETWEEN SOME ATTITUDE MEASURES1 ANEES A. SHEIKHDepartment of Psychology, Marquette UniversityA. INTRODUCTIONIt has generally been assumed that a person's stereotypes about a group affect his perception of individual members of that group. The only studies that bear on this question have, however, allinvestigated the effects of stereotypes on the perception of photographs (3), recorded voices (6), ordescriptions of people (2). One purpose of the present study was to test the above assumption withthe use of live persons as the objects being perceived. Specifically, it was predicted that to the extent that a more definite stereotype exists towards a minority group (people from India) than towards themajority group (Canadians), the majority group member's evaluation of individuals from the minoritygroup would be more dependent upon stereotyped reactions than would evaluations of majority groupmembers. A secondary objective of the present investigation was to determine the intercorrelationbetween certain attitude measures relevant to interpersonal perception,B. METHOD1. SubjectsThe Ss were 25 students from an undergraduate psychology class at the University of Western Ontario.                                                                                                                                                      2. ProcedureThe Ss were tested in two sessions. During the first session, they rated four individuals ( twoIndians and two Canadians) on 25 semantic differential scales (7) after they were interviewedindividually concerning their views on films and books. The four interviewees were male graduatestudents between the ages of 24 and 30 years. The experimenter knew all four individuals who werequite different from one another. One Indian was very well built, neatly dressed, and rather reticent.He was wearing a turban and a beard and was about 24 years old. The other Indian had no turban and beard. He was rather bulky, talkative, very casually dressed, and was about 30 years old. Of the twoCanadians, one was a short, very scientifically minded, graduate student of psychology, and the otherwas a tall, bald, graduate student in the Department of Philosophy.To maintain the naturalness of the study the interviews were not completely structured. Thesefour individuals were different from one another and it was in the interest of the study that thesedifferences be conveyed to the subjects. To approximate everyday situations more closely, it wascrucial that the subjects see how these four persons would naturally behave.A week later the same subjects rated "the people from India in general" and "Canadians in general" on the same semantic differential scales used in the first session.In addition, the subjects also responded to a Likert type rating scale which consisted of itemsfrom Dogmatism Scale (8, 9), Ethnocentrism Scale (1), and Attitude Toward Indians Scale (10).The third task was to choose adjectives from a list (5) that the subjects believed characterizedeach of the two ethnic groups (Indians and Canadians). They were instructed to add any additionalwords which they felt necessary, even if they were not included in the list provided.C. RESULTS1. Those traits which account for the first most frequent 50 per cent of the choices for Indianswere courteous, friendly, conservative, spiritualistic, very religious, artistic, honest, peace-loving, andtradition-loving. Those chosen similarly for Canadians were conservative, honest, friendly, intelligent,imitative, sportsmanlike, pleasure-loving, peace-loving, conventional, practical, materialistic, andreserved. Those traits common to both nationalities were honest, peace-loving, friendly, andconservative.2. The mean number of words used per subject to characterize Indians and Canadians was 8.36and 10.00 respectively. The difference between the two means was significant at less than .01 level (t = 3. 72), indicating that the subjects used a significantly greater number of words to describe Canadiansthan to describe Indians.3. The indices2 of stereotyped perception were significantly lower (more stereotypy) for theIndian than for the Canadian interviewees for 12 ratings out of the 25, significantly higher in no cases.4. When measures of attitude toward Indians, evaluation8 of Indians, dogmatism, andethnocentrism were intercorrelated, five significant relationships emerged, which are, in order ofmagnitude ( see Table 1) : (a) a positive correlation between ethnocentrism and dogmatism (r = .65),(b) a positive correlation between the evaluation of Indian interviewees, and "attitude toward Indians" {r = .58), (c) a positive correlation between the evaluation of Indian interviewees and the evaluation of "Indians in general" (r = .52), (d) a negative correlation between the evaluation of "Indians in general"and dogmatism ( r = .44), and (e) a positive correlation between the evaluation of "Indians in general"and "attitude toward Indians" ( r = .41).                                                                                                                                 1 CORRELATION MATRIX OF ATTITUDE MEASUllES 1 2 3 4 5 Attitude toward Indians X 41• .ss•• .22 -.07 Evaluation of Indians in general X .S2 .. -,08 -.44• Evaluation of Indian interviewees X .14 .03 Ethnocentrism Scale X .6S .. Dogmatism Scale X • p < .OS • .. p < .01. D. DISCUSSIONSince the actual design of the study involves the comparison of Canadians' perceptual judgments of individuals from India and Canada, it is first necessary to determine whether a moredefinite stereotype exists among them concerning people from India than concerning Canadians.Katz and Braly (4) define one index of ethnic stereotypes as those adjectives, most frequentlychosen from an adjective checklist, which account for 50 per cent of the group's total selections. Theymeasure the "definiteness" of an ethnic stereotype by the number of adjectives included in the index.They suggest that if a number of subjects agree on the adjectives which describe an ethnic group, then their stereotype of that group is more definite than their stereotype of another group about which there is less agreement. In this study, fewer adjectives were included in the index for "people fromIndia" (nine) than for Canadians (twelve). Although appropriate statistical tests are not available for this index, it is clear that somewhat more agreement existed on what Indians are like than on what Canadians are like. This observation is further supported by the analysis in terms of the mean numberof words used per subject to characterize Indians and Canadians. The subjects used a significantlygreater number of words to describe Canadians than to describe Indians (p < .01).Because of this greater definiteness of the Indian stereotype, it is reasonable to expect that thesubjects' perception of Indian individuals will be more strongly influenced by the stereotypes than willtheir perception of Canadians. The results presented in Table 1 tend to confirm this expectation. On 12out of 25 semantic differential scales, the tendency to stereotype one's perception of Indian individualswas significantly greater than for one's perception of Canadian individuals.The composite picture suggested by these above-mentioned 12 scales is consistentwith the composite stereotype suggested by those adjectives selected from the checklist tocharacterize people from India. This finding, it should be emphasized, is independent of the design of this study, since the measures of stereotyped perception were concerned with each subject'sevaluation (or stereotype) of the outgroup. It appears that although an individual may have privatestereotypes about an ethnic group, these stereotypes will not be sufficiently strong to influence hisperception of members of that group.If the above generalization is valid, it may be attributable to the fact that an individual'sstereotype which is shared by most members of his group is strengthened because it is frequently reinforced by them, while private stereotypes are generally not reinforced and consequently remainless strong. In situations which allow stereotypes to be elicited, perhaps only those stereotypes whichare shared by members of the group are sufficiently strong to withstand the effects of contradictoryperceptual cues, while private stereotypes may be disregarded in the light of some contradictory                                                                                                                                                                         stimulus information which the subject views as further evidence of the possible inaccuracy of hisstereotype.In the literature it has been implicitly assumed that one's attitude toward an ethnic group reflects his attitude toward the individual members of that group. The results presented in Table 1tend to support this assumption, although they cast some doubt on other assumptions concerning thenature of attitudes. It is clear that favorable attitudes toward Indians, evaluation of the concept"People from India," and the evaluation of two Indian individuals, are all significantly and positivelyintercorrelated, suggesting that one's attitude toward Indians is consistent at both the group level and the individual level. The implication is that having ascertained an individual's attitude toward a particular ethnic group, one can make a fairly sound prediction concerning how he will evaluateparticular members of that group in situations where he obtains some minimal information aboutthem. The remaining correlations presented in Table 1 strongly suggest the need for further researchbefore any assumptions concerning the nature of attitudes are accepted.REFERENCES1. ADORNO, T. W., BRUNSWIK, E. F., LEVINSON, D. J., & SANFORD, R. N. The authoritarian Personality.New York: Harper, 1950.2. BRUNER, J. S., & PERLMU'ITER, H. V. Compatriot and foreigner: A study of impression formation inthree countries. J. A bn. & Soc. Psycho/., 1957, 55, 253-260.3. GREGORY,W. S. A study of stereotyped thinking: Affective reactions to persons as the basis for judging their nationalities. J. Soc. Psycho/,, 1941, 13, 89-102.4. KATZ, D., & BRALY, K. Racial stereotypes of one hundred college students. J. A bn. & Soc. Psycho/.,1933, 28, 280-290.5. ----. Verbal stereotypes and verbal prejudice. In Swanson, G. E., Newcomb, T. M., & Hartley, E. L. (Eds.), Readings in Social Psychology. New York: Henry Holt, 1952.6. LAMBERT,W. E., HODGSON, R. C., GARDNER, R. C., & FILLENBAUM, S. Evaluational reactions tospoken languages. J. A bn. & Soc. Psycho/., 1960, 60, 44-51.7. OSGOOD, C. E., Suer, G. J., & TANNENBAUM, P. H. The Measurement of Meaning. Urbana, Ill.: Univ. Illinois Press, 19S7.8. ROKEACH, M. The nature and meaning of dogmatism. Psycho/. Rev., 19S4, 61, 195-204.9. ---. The Open and Closed Mind. New York: Basic Books, 1960.10. SHEIKH, A. A. The role of stereotypes in interpersonal perception. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Univ. Western Ontario, London, Canada, 1963.11. TAJFEL, H., SHEIKH, A. A., & GARDNER, R. E. The content of stereotypes and the inference ofsimilarity between the members of stereotyped groups. A eta Psycho/., 196S, 22, 191-201.NOTES1 A different analysis of a portion of the data discussed here has been published elsewhere (11). Thewriter wishes to express his sincere appreciation to Dr. R. C. Gardner for his advice and assistance throughout the course of the investigation.2 On a given trait, a subject's index of stereotyped perception for each interviewee was determined bythe formula: (𝑋𝑋 − 𝑋𝑋𝑔𝑔)2, where 𝑋𝑋 = the subject's rating of the interviewee, and Xg = thesubject's rating of the ethnic group to which the interviewee belongs.3 For this only the scores on those semantic differential scales that seemed to be evaluative in naturewere considered.

Stereotypy in Interpersonal Perception and Intercorrelation between Some Attitude Measures

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Stereotypy in Interpersonal Perception and Intercorrelation between Some Attitude Measures

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