The role of counter-stereotypes and non-dominant stereotypes in suppressing stereotypes

Abstract

Suppressing stereotypic thoughts leads to paradoxical effects (i.e. suppressing a stereotype facilitates the use of the stereotype itself). Recent research on paradoxical effects in stereotype suppression has demonstrated that replacement thoughts decrease its paradoxical effects. This study examined the effectiveness of female counter-stereotypes, major non-dominant female stereotypes, and minor non-dominant female stereotypes as replacement thoughts in suppressing dominant female stereotypes. In a lexical decision task, the participants were primed with either female counter-stereotypes, major non-dominant female stereotypes, minor non-dominant female stereotypes, or non-human objects, and thus they were likely to use those that were activated as replacement thoughts. Next, they were given a sentence-stem completion task that served as a manipulation of female stereotype suppression. Finally, they were given another lexical decision task and the response latencies of the stereotypic vs. non-stereotypic words were recorded. The results indicated that regardless of major or minor non-dominant female stereotypes as replacement thoughts decreased the paradoxical effects of suppressing dominant female stereotypes. We discussed the way of activation of replacement thoughts and the role of non-dominant stereotypes as replacement thoughts in suppressing dominant stereotypes.