Stereotype-Relevant Information Communication:Features And Its Influence Factors

Researchers have long recognized that individuals tend to maintain their stereoty-pes of particular groups rather than change their stereotypes, even when confronted by evidence that disconfirms the stereotypes. A considerable amount of research has been devoted to understanding this phenomenon. Much of this has mainly focused on intra-personal cognitive factors. However, the collectively shared nature of stereotypes made it not merely as products of intra-individual processes, but also as phenomena at the inter-group level. Stereotype can be communicated and transmitted from one person to another. In the process of social learning of stereotypes, communication without doubt plays a critical role. Some researchers have now begun to examine how inter-personal communication contributes to stereotype processes and maintain.Stereotype refers to the general attitude which is relatively stable towards a human group, and it is a kind of cognitive schema that contains a perceiver’s knowledge, belief, and expectancies about this social group. It has an important guiding role to people’s social cognition and behavior. Common to all conceptions of communication is the idea that information is transmitted from one part of a system to another. Communication is the process that information is transmitted and exchanged among people or group. Com-munication is a dynamic process that people try to share the internal psychological state by the use of symbols. Stereotype might how to change in communication? And what’s the psychological mechanism of maintenance? What factors would influence its comm-unication? This thesis attempts to examine these questions.Cognitive representation (including attitude) and communication are the important research fields of social psychology. Cognitive representation emphasizes the cognition how to comprehend the person, things, social norms and expectations in social life, and communication stresses the group how to use language to deal with complex social coo-rdination problem and build consensus. This study combined the cognitive representta- tion of stereotype with communication, and tried to solve these questions above by the methods of serial reproduction, content analysis, experiment and et al.. This study contributes to provide methodological and empirical support to examine stereotype from the collective level.Empirical study was consisted of three parts. The first part examined the communi-cation features of stereotype and three studies have been conducted. Experiment1and2explored respectively the communication features of stereotype in writing between two persons and among three persons. Experiment1used two-factor mixed design and independent variable was stereotypicality (consistency vs. inconsistency) and the gender of subject. Experiment2used three-factor mixed design and independent variable was stereotypicality (consistency vs. inconsistency), serial positions (1,2and3) and the gender of subject. Experiment3explored the communication features of stereotype in oral between two persons. Experiment3used two-factor within-subject design and independent variable was stereotypicality (consistency vs. inconsistency) and centrality (central vs. peripheral). Dependent variables of three experiments were all mean proportion of stereotype-consistent (SC) and stereotype inconsistent (SI) clauses reproduced.The results of writing communication whether between two persons or among thr-ee persons showed that SC information was retained significantly better than SI inform-ation. The results of oral communication still showed that participants were inclined to communicate more SC information than SI information.A general tendency exists for people to transmit more stereotype consistent (SC) than inconsistent (SI) information.The second part investigated the influence of information’characteristics on the communication and transmission of stereotype and two studies have been conducted. Experiment4used2×2mixed design to explore the influence of the linguistic abstrac-tion on the communication and transmission of stereotype. The between-subject factor was the linguistic abstraction (abstract vs. concrete) and the within-subject factor was stereotypicality (consistency vs. inconsistency). Experiment5used2×2mixed design to explore the influence of the valence on the communication and transmission of stereoty-pe. The between-subject factor was the valence (positive vs. negative) and the within-subject factor was stereotypicality (consistency vs. inconsistency). Dependent variables of two experiments were all mean proportion of stereotype-consistent (SC) and stereotype inconsistent (SI) clauses reproduced.The results showed that the characteristics of information, including the linguistic abstraction and valence, could influence on the communication and transmission of stereotype. Participants were inclined to communicate more SI information than SC information when stereotypical behaviors were described in concrete language, but part-icipants were inclined to communicate more SC information than SI information when stereotypical behaviors were described in abstract language. Participants preferentially transmitted positive SI information and negative SC information, but t the difference of them wasn’t significant.The third part examined the influence of individual and background variables on the communication and transmission of stereotype and three studies have been condu-cted. Experiment6used4×2mixed design to explore the influence of the prejudice level on the communication and transmission of stereotype. The between-subject factor was the prejudice level (low benevolent and low hostile, high benevolent and low host-ile, low benevolent and high hostile, high benevolent and high hostile) and the within-subject factor was stereotypicality (consistency vs. inconsistency). Dependent variables of the experiment were mean proportion of stereotype-consistent (SC) and stereotype-inconsistent (SI) clauses reproduced.Experiment7explored the influence of emotion on the communication and trans-mission of stereotype and two studies have been conducted. Experiment7a used2×2mixed design to explore the influence of explicit emotion on the communication and transmission of stereotype and the between-subject factor was emotional state (positive emotion vs. negative emotion) and the within-subject factor was stereotypicality (consistency vs. inconsistency). Experiment7b used3x2mixed design to explore the influence of implicit emotion on the communication and transmission of stereotype and the between-subject factor was emotional state(positive emotion,neutral emotion and negative emotion) and the within-subject factor was stereotypicality (consistency vs. inconsistency). Dependent variables of experiments were mean proportion of stereotype-consistent (SC) and stereotype inconsistent (SI) clauses reproduced.Experiment8explored the influence of intergroup on the communication and transmission of stereotype with different valence and two experiments were conducted. Experiment8a used2×2×2×4mixed design to study that intergroup relation between participant and target influenced on the communication and transmission of stereotype. The between-subject factor was actual intergroup relation (in-group vs. out-group) and the within-subject factors were valence of stereotypy (positive vs. negative), centrality (central vs. peripheral) and serial positions (1,2,3,4). Experiment8b used2×2×2×2×4mixed design to study that intergroup relation of participant-target-audience influenced on the communication and transmission of stereotype. The between-subject factors were actual intergroup relation (in-group vs. out-group) and perceived intergroup relation (in-group vs. out-group).The within-subject factors were valence of stereotypy (positive vs. negative), centrality (central vs. peripheral) and serial positions (1,2,3,4). Dependent variables of experiments were all mean proportion of positive and negative stereotype-consistent (SC) clauses reproduced.The results showed that individual and background variables had complex influence on the communication and transmission of stereotype. In experiment7, the reproduction ratio of SI information and SC information of "double-low" prejudice participants showed no significant difference, but the rest participants were inclined to communicate more SC information than SI information. In experiment8, participants communicated significantly more SC information than SI information in positive emotion priming, but participants communicated more SI information than SC information in negative emotion priming. In experiment9, people preferentially transmitted in-group positive stereotype information, whereas the reverse pattern will hold when people transmitted out-group stereotype information. Once people perceived the relationship between themselves and audience, the characteristics of transmitting selectively would became more complicated.In the general discussion, the dissertation discussed the effect of communication on the psychological mechanism of maintaining stereotype, the individual difference in stereotypical communication, intervention strategy about stereotype and the spreading mechanism of cyber-violence. At last, the author summarized the innovation of the dissertation and future direction of stereotype study.