Unasked Questions About Stereotype Accuracy

• Published in: Archives of scientific psychology Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 214 - 229
• Main Authors: Jussim, Lee, Stevens, Sean T., Honeycutt, Nathan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Psychological Association 13.12.2018
• Subjects: Empirical Methods; Human; Implicit Attitudes; Motivation; Psychologists; Social Perception; Social Sciences; Stereotyped Attitudes; stereotypes; person perception; stereotyping; bias; motivated reasoning
• ISSN: 2169-3269; 2169-3269
• DOI: 10.1037/arc0000055

ABSTRACT In this article we argue that there are many unanswered questions crucial to scientific understanding about stereotypes and stereotype accuracy. Scientists do not always engage in purely impartial search for objective truths, because, like other people, they are subject to biases in thinking, motivations to find certain particular results, and social norms regarding what is and is not an acceptable topic or finding. This article suggests that these factors conspired to prevent psychologists from asking serious questions about stereotype accuracy for decades and may help explain why many reviews of stereotypes reach conclusions in the absence of evidence, or, sometimes, in the face of evidence completely disconfirming those conclusions. We review the history of the first unasked question in this area, "Are stereotypes inaccurate?" which went unaddressed for about 70 years after the initial social science interest in stereotypes. Current unasked questions include (a) When and how does relying on a stereotype increase the accuracy of person perception? (b) Why are some stereotypes more accurate than others? (c) How accurate are implicit stereotypes? (d) Do people ever actually ignore individuals' personal characteristics when perceiving, evaluating, and judging them? We conclude with testable hypotheses about the sources of not asking certain questions, and with recommendations for overcoming scientific biases and blind spots in research on stereotypes. SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACT In this article, we argue that there are many unanswered questions crucial to scientific understanding about stereotypes and stereotype accuracy. We present a review and analysis suggesting that a set of cognitive, motivational, and social factors conspired to prevent psychologists from asking serious questions about stereotype accuracy for decades and may help explain why many reviews in the field foreclose on presumptive answers to questions that actually require empirical data. We review the history of the first unasked question in this area, "Are stereotypes inaccurate?" which went unaddressed for about 70 years after the initial social science interest in stereotypes. Current unasked questions include (a) When and how does relying on a stereotype increase the accuracy of person perception? (b) Why are some stereotypes more accurate than others? (c) How accurate are implicit stereotypes? (d) Do people ever actually ignore individuating information? We conclude with testable hypotheses about the sources of not asking certain questions, and with recommendations for overcoming biases and blind spots in research on stereotypes.