title: Stereotype-based modulation of person perception.
abstract: A core social-psychological question is how cultural stereotypes shape our encounters with other people. While there is considerable evidence to suggest that unexpected targets-such as female airline pilots and male nurses-impact the inferential and memorial aspects of person construal, it has yet to be established if early perceptual operations are similarly sensitive to the stereotype-related status of individuals. To explore this issue, the current investigation measured neural activity while participants made social (i.e., sex categorization) and non-social (i.e., dot detection) judgments about men and women portrayed in expected and unexpected occupations. When participants categorized the stimuli according to sex, stereotype-inconsistent targets elicited increased activity in cortical areas associated with person perception and conflict resolution. Comparable effects did not emerge during a non-social judgment task. These findings begin to elucidate how and when stereotypic beliefs modulate the formation of person percepts in the brain.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, Scotland, UK. susanne.quadflieg@uclouvain.be
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Quadflieg
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Flannigan
authors.forename: Gordon D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Waiter
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rossion
authors.forename: Gagan S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Wig
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Turk
authors.forename: C Neil
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Macrae
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping; D055815:Young Adult