ABSTRACT
What do Brits think are the distinctive features of Muslims? How does a male employee expect his new female colleague to be? More crucially, why do the positive pieces of information about this asylum seeker fail to alter my views about immigrants? We know that social perceivers associate human groups with a series of characteristics regarding what they think (their beliefs), what they do (their behaviors), and how they feel about their environments (their emotions). In fact, people entertain various assumptions about the features that are emblematic of a variety of other groups and have a definite idea of which personality characteristics to expect when they are confronted with their specific members. Within social psychology, an impressive body of literature is devoted to the measurement of these so-called stereotypes ( Judd & Park, 1993; Park & Judd, 1990; Leyens, Yzerbyt, & Schadron, 1994). A substantial
level of effort has also been directed toward understanding the consequences that such stereotypical beliefs may have on social relations (Fiske, 1998, 2000; Schneider, 2004; Yzerbyt & Corneille, 2005). Perhaps even more central to social psychologists’ research agendas is the work concerned with the variables that shape and possibly alter stereotypes. What are the different factors that may help change what people think about other groups?
