The Development of Stereotypes About the Rich and Poor: Age, Race, and Family Income Differences in Beliefs

Woods, Taniesha A.; Kurtz‐Costes, Beth; Rowley, Stephanie J.

doi:10.1007/s10964-005-7261-0

Cited by 76 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…Hence, ecology stereotypes are not derivative of wealth stereotypes; they are applied to both wealthy and poor individuals. These findings also suggest that ecology stereotypes are not simply stereotypes about the socioeconomic status or social classes of individuals (23). Indeed, unlike approaches focusing on specific historical and sociological conditions that shape stereotypes of the economically disadvantaged (24), our approach suggests that similar ecology-driven stereotypes are likely to exist across societies, a point we address in Discussion.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 82%

Ecology-driven stereotypes override race stereotypes

Williams

Sng

Neuberg

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Why do race stereotypes take the forms they do? Life history theory posits that features of the ecology shape individuals' behavior. Harsh and unpredictable ("desperate") ecologies induce fast strategy behaviors such as impulsivity, whereas resource-sufficient and predictable ("hopeful") ecologies induce slow strategy behaviors such as future focus. We suggest that individuals possess a lay understanding of ecology's influence on behavior, resulting in ecology-driven stereotypes. Importantly, because race is confounded with ecology in the United States, we propose that Americans' stereotypes about racial groups actually reflect stereotypes about these groups' presumed home ecologies. Study 1 demonstrates that individuals hold ecology stereotypes, stereotyping people from desperate ecologies as possessing faster life history strategies than people from hopeful ecologies. Studies 2-4 rule out alternative explanations for those findings. Study 5, which independently manipulates race and ecology information, demonstrates that when provided with information about a person's race (but not ecology), individuals' inferences about blacks track stereotypes of people from desperate ecologies, and individuals' inferences about whites track stereotypes of people from hopeful ecologies. However, when provided with information about both the race and ecology of others, individuals' inferences reflect the targets' ecology rather than their race: black and white targets from desperate ecologies are stereotyped as equally fast life history strategists, whereas black and white targets from hopeful ecologies are stereotyped as equally slow life history strategists. These findings suggest that the content of several predominant race stereotypes may not reflect race, per se, but rather inferences about how one's ecology influences behavior. Traits such as these have long characterized white Americans' stereotypes of black Americans (1-3). Why do race stereotypes in the United States take these particular forms?Stereotypes are useful to the extent they can rapidly provide perceivers with information about the affordances-threats and opportunities-posed by others (4). Indeed, a major function of the mind is to identify and anticipate affordances and to respond to them in ways that are threat reducing and opportunity enhancing so that we may more successfully achieve our goals (5-10). However, because we cannot directly see others' behavioral intentions, strategies, or capacities, we must infer them (imperfectly) from cues we can perceive. Here, we argue that one such cue is an individual's home ecology, because ecologies shape the behavior of those within them. Thus, by knowing another's home ecology, people possess useful information (in the form of stereotypes) about others' behavioral intentions, strategies, and capacities. To the extent that different races are associated with different home ecologies, an individual's race becomes a secondary cue to his or her ecology, with the implication that race may evoke ecology-driven stereot...

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 82%

Ecology-driven stereotypes override race stereotypes

Williams

Sng

Neuberg

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…As a consequence, welfare recipients sense that society sees them as criminals, "milking the system. " (Underlid, 2005) Although the content of the stereotype of poor people as outlined in earlier research primarily originates from North American studies (as in Bullock, 1999;Cozzarelli et al, 2001;Gilmore & Harris, 2008;Henry, Reyna, & Weiner, 2004;Kluegel & Smith, 1986;Woods et al, 2005), researchers have identified similar stereotype content across post-communist countries, such as Hungary and Russia, where the acceptance of inequality and poverty seems to be lower than in the United States (Kreidl, 2000).…”

Section: Stereotypes Of the Poormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar examples are extensive and widespread: The stereotype of the poor includes unfavorable individual properties, such as having low intelligence, being lazy, and not being interested in self-improvement (see e.g. Bullock, 1995;Cozzarelli, Wilkinson, & Tagler, 2001;Kreidl, 2000;Lott, 2002;Woods, Kurtz-Costes, & Rowley, 2005). Poor individuals are often held to have themselves to blame (Bolitho, Carr, & Fletcher, 2007;Kluegel & Smith, 1986).…”

Section: Stereotypes Of the Poormentioning

confidence: 99%

The perception of the poor: Capturing stereotype content with different measures

2017

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Even though Sweden stands out in many ways, with for example a well-developed welfare system, there are some indications that Swedish egalitarianism does not include tolerance for people with low income. The present research concerns the content of the Swedish stereotype of poor people, and examines whether the poor are associated with just as negative traits as they are in other countries. Three different measurement methods were employed to investigate the contents and strength of the stereotype. In Study 1, participants freely associated on the perceived characteristics of Swedish citizens who receive welfare benefits. They also provided ratings of this group on traits related to warmth and competence. Study 2 employed both trait ratings and implicit measures (Single Category-IATs) in order to estimate the strength of the associations between the poor and warmth/competence, respectively. Across the different measures, the poor were associated with low competence and low-medium warmth. This corroborates the findings from previous research related to the Stereotype Content Model in other countries.

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“…Such stereotypes are especially important in the transition to adolescence, when youth experience rapid physical, social and cognitive changes (Woods, Kurtz-Costes, & Rowley, 2005).…”

Section: Social Images: Definitions and Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some studies demonstrate how youth in care are perceived as problematic, different, marginal, needy, abandoned, weak, or poorly qualified (Arpini, 2003) and having low academic competence (Woods et al, 2005). Such perceptions also contain dimensions such as sadness, poverty, loneliness, abandoned and rootless and negative features expressed in terms of appearance (e.g., dirty) and behaviour (e.g., insolent, hostile) (Kuznetsova, 2005).…”

Section: Social Images In the Residential Care Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%