ABSTRACT
Stereotyping processes respond to systematic principles that generalize across different specific instances of stereotypes, so the processes invite social–psychological investigation, because they are presumably stable over time, place, and out-group. The mixed stereotypes hypothesis predicts that many out-group stereotypes fall into two cells: high warmth but low competence for compliant subordinates, and low warmth but high competence for successful competitors. Participants also rated each group on items assessing perceived status and competition, with specific items again derived from their reliability across a new set of factor analyses within each rated individual group. The perceived link between a group's societal outcomes and its perceived competence serves several functions. Correlations of status and competition scales with competence and warmth scales assess the third, social structural hypothesis. Students and nonstudents were surveyed about society's perceptions of social groups' traits and the structural relationships of status and competition.
