This research program investigated the reasonable possibility that differential information processing strategies can be manifestations of racist prejudgments. Our research design applies a technique often used in social cognition studies. This technique captures evidence of a rather habit-driven (though not instantaneous) decision made by subjects rapidly presented with information about (typically fictional) characters. These target characters are associated (in the context of the experiment) with some form of generalized expectancy (i.e., they are typically presented as a likable or unlikable person). This is accomplished either by creating the expectancy artificially, or by using targets that are members of a conspicuously or notably-stereotyped group. The rather non-conscious decision involved is one of either bolstering one's pre-conceived notions or engaging in inconsistency resolution (e.g., either marshaling evidence to bolster your prejudicial expectation or pondering more earnestly those pieces of information which are inconsistent with your expectancy or well-known prejudicial stereotypes). Typically, the likelihood of pursuing one strategy or the other is manipulated in experimental settings by first providing an artificial expectation, then altering the structure of the person-memory task or adjusting the rate of information flow to the subjects. We hoped to reveal how a non-artificial pre-existing race-based prejudicial expectancy (of a largely non-evaluative as in non-likable/dislikable nature) might effect the pursuit of one strategy or the other. By and large, tests of our five hypotheses provide only mixed support for use of a person-memory associative network model in this context. The first and second hypotheses have some visual support (i.e., recall proportions across sentence types start out roughly equal for low prejudicial expectation - PE -- subjects then branch out; high PE subjects seem to treat sentence types differently from the start); however, these differences are not amenable to clearly interpretable statistical tests. Analysis of the third and fourth hypotheses was confounded because the candidate contaminating covariate failed to have consistent effects. This, coupled with the floor effect of the PE scale, the unexplained (and substantial) variability in recall behavior, and some other control issues (detailed below), made the use of the continuous DVs less than fruitful. The floor effect of the PE scale was especially problematic - with many subjects compressed at this floor, relations would be difficult to see even if present. In an attempt to detect weak effects of prejudice, we aggregated subjects by PE (as in high and low prejudice). Aggregation probably made the floor effect-driven range restriction less problematic (the subjects lumped together on PE's floor are probably less-afflicted with well-practiced prejudicial expectations than the high half of PE scorers). This exercise generated weak support for the third hypothesis: the time interval data feebly indicates that high PE subjects manifest a negative impression-centered person-memory schema in their storage of sentences about a Black target - and, unlike the low PE subjects, they apparently do this starting with the earliest blocks of sentences. The median split approach failed to generate support for the fourth hypothesis - where we expected to see bolstering replace inconsistency resolution (in the slow condition) since subjects were afforded the time. There was weak evidence, however, that more inconsistency resolution was occurring in the fast condition (as the proposed model had predicted). This evidence was in the form of greater recall time interval differences seen when comparing high PE subjects and their schema-speeded versus non-speeded intervals. The bottom line for the first four hypotheses is still this: we failed to create a condition where prejudice would paradoxically favor recall of laudable or admirable inconsistencies associated with a fictitious Black target. The fifth hypothesis was just intended to verify that racial prejudice does not predict recall behavior when the target is White and so are the subjects. So using a White target, we performed the same sort of tests seen above. Fortunately, relations with PE ranged from weak to very weak - and, of course, were non-significant. In sum, these outcomes suggest that Hastie-Srull associative network (H-SAN) processing effects may not reliably or consistently manifest themselves in the prejudiced rater/performance appraisal arena -- at least not in designs similar to those used previously to illustrate H-SAN effects. There were some clear exceptions, however, in our data. Taken together, our results suggest that H-SAN mechanisms may apply when appraising performance potential, but have a difficult time manifesting themselves in substantial ways. / Ph. D.

Age stereotypes have been associated with patterns of communication toward older adults as well as an individual s impression of older adults. Thus far, researchers have not explored these associations using paradigms in which participants engage interactively with the target; rather, studies have placed participants in the role of an objective observer of the target. The current study made use of a simulated communication paradigm to examine change in age stereotype activation, communication patterns and the impressions that are formed of an older adult target over the course of an interaction. Target individuals were portrayed either very positively (as a healthy active older adult) or more negatively (as an unwell stereotypical older adult). The competence of the target was manipulated to examine the effect of this trait on stereotype activation, communication and impressions. Individuals of all ages were found to initially speak in an affirmative way to the older adult target, regardless of initial impression, and then adjusted their speech to reflect the competency of the target. Impressions reflected both initial impressions as well as information gained from the interactive task; middle-aged and older adults focused on diagnostic information while young adults made use of all available information to inform their judgments.

This netnographic and autoethnographic study examines self-presentation and impression formation through photographs presented on a gay online dating community, Qruiser. The theoretical framework of Goffman’s performance of self and Asch’s formation of impression was developed based on semiotic signifiers and signified. The study was carried out through participant observation of 200 gay daters’ photographs, online interviews, group discussions and narratives of the author’s personal experience. Observation showed that gay daters primarily presented six categories of photographs: self-portrait, daily pictures, travel pictures, sexually explicit pictures, pictures of objects, and black and white pictures. The daters were asked to justify their photographs in self-presentations, and the responses showed that the signs in the photographs could be both intentional and unintentional. Online interviews and group discussion participants suggested that there were distinctions of central and peripheral signifiers in impression formation. Furthermore, participants felt that misunderstanding of impressions resulting from dating photographs was unimportant, due to the compensation of textual presentation and messages.

Perceptions of intelligence are strongly related to attractiveness and have a significant impact on first impressions. The introductory chapters (1 - 3) provide an overview of the literature on attractiveness, halo effects, and intelligence, while the experimental chapters (4 - 6) explore perceptions of cues to intelligence beyond attractiveness, individual differences in the susceptibility to the halo, and the accuracy of perceptions of competence. Chapter 4 investigated the malleable facial cues of eyelid-openness and mouth curvature and their influence on perceived intelligence. Attractiveness partially mediated intelligence impression, but effects of eyelid-openness and subtle smiling enhanced intelligence ratings independent of attractiveness. These effects were observed and replicated in between individual (cross-sectional) studies of natural images of adult faces, child faces, through digital manipulation of individual cues in the same faces, and in a within individual sleep-restricted sample. Chapter 5 investigated the relationship between perceived intelligence and attractiveness by exploring whether a raters' own intelligence may be related to a stronger endorsement of the perceived intelligence-attractiveness halo. The correlation between ratings of the perceived intelligence and attractiveness was found to be stronger for participants who scored higher on an intelligence test than participants with lower intelligence test scores. Chapter 6 investigated the limiting effects of attractiveness on perceptions of competence. When statistically controlling for the attractiveness halo, academic performance could be predicted from judgments of conscientiousness but not from ratings of intelligence. Thus this thesis demonstrates that malleable facial cues can influence perceptions of intelligence independent of attractiveness, identifies an individual difference that influences endorsement of the intelligence-attractiveness halo, and shows the limiting effects of the attractiveness halo on potentially accurate perceptions of academic performance. Collectively these findings provide evidence of the powerful influence of attractiveness on perceptions of intelligence; such work is necessary if we are to mitigate such bias.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1999. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-86). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ56233.

Not available / text

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Blanchard-Fields, Fredda; Committee Member: Fischer, Ute; Committee Member: Griffin, Zenzi; Committee Member: Hertzog, Christopher; Committee Member: Hummert, Mary Lee

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-53).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: James W. Pennebaker. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.