Effects of social stereotypes on language use in the description of person dispositions

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that stereotypical expectations result in biases not only in memories and judgments, but in language use as well. The present study examined the effects of communicative contexts on verbal expressions of stereotype-relevant information. In order to do this, we developed a new linguistic index for content analyses, involving stereotypic representations. In our experiment undergraduate students were presented with behavioral descriptions of either an in-group, or an out-group member, and were asked to describe their impressions. The stimulus information given to the students included both stereotype-consistent, and inconsistent cases. Results showed that the out-group member was described in more stereotype-consistent, abstract terms, than the in-group member. This was interpreted as higher tendency of bias against the out-group. Ultimately, the newly developed index was found to be useful in identifying dispositional expressions that are peculiar to the Japanese language. Finally, implications for the study of stereotypes as collectively shared representations are discussed.