Use of Category Versus Individuating Information: Making Base Rates Salient

Abstract

Locksley, Hepburn, and Ortiz have argued that when individuating information is available, (a) Ss rely on this and not gender stereotypes, and (b) Ss' judgments are reliably deviant from a Bayesian normative standard. The authors argue these effects depend on the salience of the base-rate information. In this study, Ss learned about targets' gender and past behavior regarding assertiveness. Half the Ss also received photographs to increase the salience of the targets' gender Ss in the photo condition were influenced by their gender stereotypes, whereas those in the no-photo condition were not. Judgments in the photo condition did not differ from Bayesian expectations, whereas those in the no-photo condition were reliably nonnormative. In the photo condition, Ss' prior estimates of assertiveness among men and women predicted their use of gender in judgments of specific individuals, whereas this relationship was not found in the no-photo condition.