{"title":"Letter labels and illusory correlation: infrequent letters bias reactions to the group.","authors":"Craig Johnson","doi":"10.1080/00224545.2023.2224546","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A previously underappreciated factor, the specific letters used to label the groups, was found to influence the magnitude of the well-established illusory correlation (IC) effect . The typical IC effect of an association between the minority group and the rarer (negative) behavior was strong when the minority group was labeled with an infrequent letter (e.g. X, Z) and the majority group was labeled with a frequent letter (e.g. S, T), but the effect was eliminated (or reduced) with the reverse pairing of the majority group with an infrequent letter. The letter label effect was also found with the A and B labels most commonly used in this paradigm. The results were consistent with an explanation based on the affect associated with the letters due to the mere exposure effect. The findings reveal a previously unexplored way that the names for groups may influence stereotype formation, contribute to the debate on the mechanism underlying IC, and illustrate how arbitrarily chosen labels for groups and other objects in social research may bias processing in unexpected ways.</p>","PeriodicalId":48205,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Social Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2023.2224546","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/6/15 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
A previously underappreciated factor, the specific letters used to label the groups, was found to influence the magnitude of the well-established illusory correlation (IC) effect . The typical IC effect of an association between the minority group and the rarer (negative) behavior was strong when the minority group was labeled with an infrequent letter (e.g. X, Z) and the majority group was labeled with a frequent letter (e.g. S, T), but the effect was eliminated (or reduced) with the reverse pairing of the majority group with an infrequent letter. The letter label effect was also found with the A and B labels most commonly used in this paradigm. The results were consistent with an explanation based on the affect associated with the letters due to the mere exposure effect. The findings reveal a previously unexplored way that the names for groups may influence stereotype formation, contribute to the debate on the mechanism underlying IC, and illustrate how arbitrarily chosen labels for groups and other objects in social research may bias processing in unexpected ways.
研究发现,一个以前未被充分重视的因素,即用于标记群体的特定字母,会影响已被证实的虚幻相关(IC)效应的大小。当少数群体被标注为不常见的字母(如 X、Z),而多数群体被标注为常见的字母(如 S、T)时,少数群体与较罕见(负面)行为之间的典型 IC 效应就会很强烈,但当多数群体与不常见的字母反向配对时,这种效应就会消除(或减弱)。在该范式中最常用的 A 和 B 标签上也发现了字母标签效应。这些结果与基于与字母相关的情感的解释是一致的,而这种情感是由单纯的暴露效应引起的。这些发现揭示了一种以前未曾探索过的方法,即群体名称可能会影响刻板印象的形成,有助于对 IC 的内在机制进行讨论,并说明了在社会研究中任意选择的群体和其他对象的标签可能会以意想不到的方式使处理过程产生偏差。
期刊介绍:
Since John Dewey and Carl Murchison founded it in 1929, The Journal of Social Psychology has published original empirical research in all areas of basic and applied social psychology. Most articles report laboratory or field research in core areas of social and organizational psychology including the self, attribution theory, attitudes, social influence, consumer behavior, decision making, groups and teams, sterotypes and discrimination, interpersonal attraction, prosocial behavior, aggression, organizational behavior, leadership, and cross-cultural studies. Academic experts review all articles to ensure that they meet high standards.