Providing Positive Individuating Information to Reduce Stereotype-Based Negativity in Service Encounters

Abstract

With the increasingly diverse workforce in the hospitality and tourism industry, it is imperative to identify strategies to reduce biases in the workplace. Across two studies, we examined the utility of providing individual-level positive individuating information as a strategy to combat customers’ stereotypes in service encounters. In Study 1, we explored the effectiveness of providing either positive stereotypical or counter-stereotypical individuating information to remediate negative perceptions toward older workers in an experimental vignette study using a hypothetical customer service encounter. In Study 2, we demonstrated the robustness of this technique with a group that has opposing stereotypes compared with older workers (Asian adults). Across these two studies, we found that providing positive counter-stereotypical individuating information most strongly affected customers’ satisfaction ratings of employees by boosting positive counter-stereotypical perceptions of both older and Asian targets. We discuss the implications of our study along with possible future research related to individual-level strategies to reduce workplace discrimination.