Linguistic Description Moderates the Evaluations of Counterstereotypical People

Rubin, Mark; Paolini, Stefania; Crisp, Richard J.

Abstract

The present research investigated linguistic description as a moderator of biased evaluations of counterstereotypical individuals. Members of an online participant pool (N = 237) indicated their liking for stereotypical and counterstereotypical individuals who were described using adjectives or behaviors. There was a significant interaction between target typicality and linguistic description: People liked counterstereotypical individuals more than stereotypical individuals when target individuals were described using adjectives. In contrast, they showed no bias or a negative bias against counterstereotypical individuals who were described using behaviors. This interaction effect generalized across gender targets (men/women) and sexuality targets (gay/straight), and it was partially mediated by subjective processing fluency. Implications for the backlash effect and prejudice reduction are discussed.

Citation

Rubin, M., Paolini, S., & Crisp, R. J. (2013). Linguistic Description Moderates the Evaluations of Counterstereotypical People. Social Psychology, 44(4), 289-298. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000114

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 5, 2012
• Online Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Publication Date: 2013-01
• Deposit Date: Aug 23, 2017
• Journal: Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie
• Print ISSN: 1864-9335
• Electronic ISSN: 2151-2590
• Publisher: Hogrefe
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 289-298
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000114