Perceived Variability and Stereotype Change

Abstract

This article explores the neglected issue of how attempts to change perceived variability might positively, or adversely, affect attempts to change central-tendency measures of stereotyping. Two studies investigated the impact of group variability on stereotype change. Study 1 crossed pattern of disconfirming information (concentrated/dispersed) with a direct manipulation of the group's perceived variability (high/low); Study 2 crossed pattern with an indirect manipulation of the group's perceived variability (no subgrouping/subgrouping). Both studies yielded a reliable interaction between pattern of stereotype-disconfirming information and perceived group variability. A central-tendency measure of stereotyping (and a measure of dispersion in Study 2) was weaker in the dispersed than concentrated conditions only when variability was low. Disconfirmers were also perceived as more typical in the dispersed than concentrated conditions when variability was low. Mediational analyses showed that the relationship between stereotyping and perceived typicality was bidirectional rather than typicality driving stereotyping. These results may help us to design interventions that achieve multiple types of generalized change in the way outgroups are so often negatively perceived.