title: Making the illusory correlation effect appear and then disappear: the effects of increased learning.
abstract: The acquisition of a negative evaluation of a fictitious minority social group in spite of the absence of any objective correlation between group membership and negative behaviours was described by Hamilton and Gifford (1976) as an instance of an illusory correlation. We studied the acquisition and attenuation through time of this correlation learning effect. In two experiments we asked for participants' judgements of two fictitious groups using an online version of a group membership belief paradigm. We tested how judgements of the two groups changed as a function of the amount of training they received. Results suggest that the perception of the illusory correlation effect is initially absent, emerges with intermediate amounts of absolute experience, but diminishes and is eliminated with increased experience. This illusory correlation effect can be considered to reflect incomplete learning rather than a bias due to information loss in judgements or distinctiveness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Robin A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schmeer
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vallée-Tourangeau
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mondragón
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hilton
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000502:physiology*; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012938:Social Perception; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013240:Stereotyping; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities