Evidence for the social role theory of stereotype content: Observations of groups’ roles shape stereotypes.

Anne M. Koenig · Alice H. Eagly

726 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Personality and Social Psychology

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Social and Intergroup Psychology Media, Gender, and Advertising Social Power and Status Dynamics

Abstract

In applying social role theory to account for the content of a wide range of stereotypes, this research tests the proposition that observations of groups' roles determine stereotype content (Eagly & Wood, 2012). In a novel test of how stereotypes can develop from observations, preliminary research collected participants' beliefs about the occupational roles (e.g., lawyer, teacher, fast food worker, chief executive officer, store clerk, manager) in which members of social groups (e.g., Black women, Hispanics, White men, the rich, senior citizens, high school dropouts) are overrepresented relative to their numbers in the general population. These beliefs about groups' typical occupational roles proved to be generally accurate when evaluated in relation to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Then, correlational studies predicted participants' stereotypes of social groups from the attributes ascribed to group members' typical occupational roles (Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c), the behaviors associated with those roles (Study 2), and the occupational interest profile of the roles (Study 3). As predicted by social role theory, beliefs about the attributes of groups' typical roles were strongly related to group stereotypes on both communion and agency/competence. In addition, an experimental study (Study 4) demonstrated that when social groups were described with changes to their typical social roles in the future, their projected stereotypes were more influenced by these future roles than by their current group stereotypes, thus supporting social role theory's predictions about stereotype change. Discussion considers the implications of these findings for stereotype change and the relation of social role theory to other theories of stereotype content.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 726 citations exist upstream.

References

1969The Handbook of Social Psychology 2002A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition.2002Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders.1996Forming inferences about some intraclass correlation coefficients.2002Rethinking individualism and collectivism: Evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses.1973Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments 1941Department of Labor 2006Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence

Cited by

2014From Mirroring to World‐Making: Research as Future Forming 2016What is a True Gamer? The Male Gamer Stereotype and the Marginalization of Women in Video Game Culture 2016The ABC of stereotypes about groups: Agency/socioeconomic success, conservative–progressive beliefs, and communion.2020Women and Suicidal Behavior 2018Is Man the Measure of All Things? A Social Cognitive Account of Androcentrism

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.