The knife that cuts both ways: Facilitated and inhibited access to traits as a result of stereotype activation

Abstract

Facilitatory and inhibitory effects of stereotype activation were studied in three experiments. It was proposed that, in semantic memory, social categories are positively associated with stereotype-consistent traits and negatively with stereotype-inconsistent traits. Based on these postulated associations, it was predicted that priming a category label would facilitate access to stereotype-consistent trait concepts and obstruct access to inconsistent trait concepts. In three experiments, primed subjects were compared to no-prime control subjects, and comparisons were made between consistent, inconsistent and irrelevant traits using different measures of accessibility. The predicted facilitatory and inhibitory effects were both obtained, suggesting that stereotype activation actively increases the retrieval probability of consistent traits and actively decreases the retrieval probability of inconsistent traits. The implications of our findings with respect to impression formation and stereotyping are discussed.