An Experimental Study On Coo Stereotype In College Students About Laptop

Implicit stereotype is a major domain of implicit social cognition research. There have been implicit stereotype researches on sexes, races, professions and regions but few on implicit COO stereotype. Country-of-origin (COO) effect is also a significant topic in international trading and consumer behavior research. Study on COO stereotype has significant implications, both theoretical and practical. So in this study we took (a)college students as its subjects, (b) COO stereotype in laptop as its research topic, (c) Implicit Association Test as its main research method, (d)Inquisit software as its main research tool. Reviewed first were the relative researches and research methods of implicit stereotype and COO effects, then the data of IAT and explicit questionnaire were statistically analyzed, followed by investigation of the existence of COO stereotype in college students about laptop, the relation between the implicit and explicit COO stereotype, predictive capability of implicit COO stereotype and the influencing factor of implicit COO stereotype. This study finally finds out:1. There do exists implicit COO stereotype in college students about laptop. College students showed unconscious preference for foreign laptop brands and unconscious bias against domestic brands.2. College students showed implicit COO stereotype about laptop, no explicit COO stereotype about laptop.3. Implicit test measures implicit attitudes and explicit test measures explicit attitudes. Implicit COO stereotype and explicit COO stereotype are two distinctly different psychological structure. There is no statistically significant correlation between them.4. College students using domestic laptop showed no significant implicit COO stereotype, whereas College students using foreign laptop showed extremely significant implicit COO stereotype.5. For college students who were using the foreign laptop, IAT measure is more predictive for their behavior than explicit measure.