ABSTRACT
As Swim and Stangor (1998) pointed out not too long ago, mainstream research on stereotyping and prejudice carried out by social psychologist during the last decades largely focused on the perceiver’s perspective; that is, researchers in the field were particularly interested in the analysis of the emergence, structure, and maintenance of the mental representations that people hold of groups and social categories. They were eager to understand how such mental representations affect cognitive and behavioral processes in persons who hold a specific mental representation of a given target group (e.g., processes in the perceiver; cf. Fiske, 1998; Smith, 1998). If we move beyond this rather intrapersonal focus, other, more interpersonal aspects emerge. How are stereotypes communicated? Does the form of the communication influence later consequences in the recipient? How are these consequences mediated? These kinds of questions can be applied to two different types of communication recipients: (a) those who are not associated with the stereotype and (b) those who may be. With respect to the latter, the research agenda in the field experienced a significant modification when researchers began to systematically address the target’s perspective. Accordingly, the focus of research on stereotyping and prejudice was broadened in an attempt to understand the role that stereotypes and prejudice play in affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes in persons who are members of groups or social categories targeted by stereotypic beliefs and prejudice (for an overview of
research programs taking this perspective, see the volume edited by Swim and Stangor, 1998). Not surprisingly, being exposed to communication that transports a stereotype that can be applied to oneself may have dramatic consequences. Communicating the stereotype to the target itself affects a wide spectrum of aspects.
