\u201cPeople often think of prejudice as a simple, single phenomenon \u2014 general dislike for members of other groups \u2014 but recent research suggests that there are actually multiple, distinct types of prejudice<\/strong>,\u201d says graduate student Rebecca Neel, who conducted the research with her advisor Steven Neuberg and post-doctoral scholar Samantha Neufeld at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n Neel and colleagues wanted to see whether people would be aware of the stereotypes associated with their group and whether they would opt for strategies that counteract those specific stereotypes in order to make a good first impression<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The researchers recruited 75 college students, all of whom had self-identified as overweight or not overweight, to participate in a study about \u201cimpressions of groups.\u201d The students were told that they would answer questions about three groups randomly chosen out of a total pool of ten; in fact, everyone received questions about the same groups: Muslims, Mexican Americans, and obese people.<\/p>\n In a separate part of the study, the students imagined that they were going to meet someone new and ranked eight different strategies for making a good first impression<\/strong>. The strategies included arriving on time, looking interested, smiling, appearing relaxed, and wearing clean clothes.<\/p>\n Some of the participants ranked the eight strategies before receiving the questions about the three groups; others ranked them afterward, so that group-related stereotypes would be fresh in their mind.<\/p>\n Regardless of their own weight, the students perceived conventional stereotypes about obese people<\/strong>. They believed that most people feel disgust toward obese individuals and see them as a threat to their health.<\/p>\n But, just as the researchers predicted, overweight and non-overweight students did show differences in how they ranked the strategies for making a good impression<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Overweight participants who were primed to think about group stereotypes were more likely to prioritize wearing clean clothes than participants in the other conditions \u2014 they ranked this strategy, on average, as most important<\/strong>. Non-overweight participants and overweight participants who hadn\u2019t been primed tended to give \u201carriving on time\u201d the highest ranking.<\/p>\n These findings suggest that overweight participants considered wearing clean clothes to be an important strategy for managing other people\u2019s first impressions and diminishing the specific emotion \u2014 disgust \u2014 that underlies prejudice toward obese people.<\/p>\n The results were supported by a second study that included college students from two stigmatized groups: overweight men and Black men.<\/p>\n Once again, the students\u2019 reports fell in line with typical stereotypes: Overweight men thought that other people viewed their group as posing a threat of disease, while Black men thought that other people saw their group as posing a threat of violence<\/strong>. And they ranked their impression strategies accordingly.<\/p>\n As before, overweight men ranked wearing clean clothes as more important when stereotypes about obese people were top-of-mind. Black men, on the other hand, viewed smiling \u2014 a strategy useful for \u2018disarming\u2019 concerns about ill intentions \u2014 as more important when they were primed to think about stereotypes related to African Americans<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Thus, the participants adopted different strategies for managing a first impression, depending on their own group membership and the salience of specific stereotypes and prejudices about their group.<\/p>\n Neel and colleagues argue that this research demonstrates that stigma doesn\u2019t manifest as just general negativity; it involves specific emotions that are felt toward specific groups. People\u2019s experiences being on the receiving end of these emotions leads them to use different strategies for managing prejudice.<\/p>\n So, whether it\u2019s a job interview, a performance evaluation, or a casual social encounter, \u201cmembers of stigmatized groups may strategically change how they present themselves to others in anticipation of these different emotions,\u201d<\/strong> says Neel.<\/p>\n The researchers believe that this research offers a new way of looking at an important social topic:<\/p>\n \u201cPsychology has long been interested in understanding where prejudice comes from, and there\u2019s a body of more recent work that seeks to understand prejudice and stereotyping from the target\u2019s perspective\u201d the researchers point out. \u201cOur research is part of a growing program that demonstrates the tight links between the psychology of prejudiced perceivers and the psychology of those targeted by these prejudices<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Association for Psychological Science press release via HealthCanal: Individuals from stigmatized groups choose to present themselves in ways that counteract the specific stereotypes and prejudices associated with their… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[81,12,17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12412"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12434,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412\/revisions\/12434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"principal_with_books\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/principal_with_books.jpg\")
<\/a>Individuals from stigmatized groups choose to present themselves in ways that counteract the specific stereotypes and prejudices associated with their group<\/strong>, according to a new study published in Psychological Science<\/em>, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.<\/p>\n