title: Stereotypes as dominant responses: on the "social facilitation" of prejudice in anticipated public contexts.
abstract: This article challenges the highly intuitive assumption that prejudice should be less likely in public compared with private settings. It proposes that stereotypes may be conceptualized as a type of dominant response (C. L. Hull, 1943; R. B. Zajonc, 1965) whose expression may be enhanced in public settings, especially among individuals high in social anxiety. Support was found for this framework in an impression formation paradigm (Experiment 1) and in a speeded task designed to measure stereotypic errors in perceptual identification (Experiment 2). Use of the process dissociation procedure (B. K. Payne, L. L. Jacoby, & A. J. Lambert, in press) demonstrated that these effects were due to decreases in cognitive control rather than increases in stereotype accessibility. The findings highlight a heretofore unknown and ironic consequence of anticipated public settings: Warning people that others may be privy to their responses may actually increase prejudice among the very people who are most worried about doing the wrong thing in public.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63139, USA. alambert@artsci.wustl.edu
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: B Keith
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.forename: Larry L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Jacoby
authors.forename: Lara M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Shaffer
authors.forename: Alison L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Chasteen
authors.forename: Saera R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010698:Phobic Disorders; D011287:Prejudice; D012919:Social Behavior; D012932:Social Facilitation; D013240:Stereotyping