The purpose of the proposed research is to investigate the causal relationship between stereotypes and prejudice. Many contemporary social psychologists assume that negative stereotypes cause prejudice, and therefore, in an effort to pull out the roots of prejudice, they focus their research on understanding and fighting stereotyping. In contrast to this prevailing assumption, classic theorists proposed that negative stereotypes are the result rather than the cause of prejudice. More precisely, negative stereotypes may develop in order to justify one's negative feelings toward another group. However, little empirical research has tested this prejudice-justification hypothesis. The proposed research involves four studies, including one pilot study, designed to test various hypotheses regarding the causal influence of prejudice on negative stereotype formation. The pilot study will gauge the effectiveness of a suboptimal priming procedure for manipulating participants' feelings towards two novel social categories. If effective, the suboptimal priming procedure will be used in Studies 1-3. Study 1 will test the prejudice-justification hypothesis by manipulating participants' feelings towards two new social categories and then observing whether those feelings, particularly negative feelings, bias the traits assigned to the social categories. Study 2 will test two competing explanations for the results of Study 1, namely paired distinctiveness and motivated recall. Lastly, Study 3 will examine whether the prejudice justification is automatic or requires cognitive resources. Funding for these studies will provide the impetus for the principal investigator's research program, as well as valuable experience and training in research for doctoral and undergraduate students involved with the project. ? ?
