The Role of Cognitive Factors in the Perception of Artificial Social Groups with Different Level of Social Typicality

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Abstract

The study is devoted to the analysis of the role of cognitive styles and divergent thinking in the stereotyped and biased perception of outgroups identified by the criterion of social typicality. 191 participants (142 females and 49 males (26%) from 17 to 22 years old (M = 19.06, SD = 0.98) read 4 variants of stimulus texts containing information about artificial social groups with low and average levels of social typicality, and then filled in methodic forms aimed at measuring stereotyping, bias, cognitive styles and divergent thinking. It was found that under conditions of low social typicality, stereotyping was higher on the background of field-dependence, rigid control, impulsiveness, cognitive simplicity and weak originality. With the increasing of social typicality to an average level, the growth of stereotyping was determined just by the field-dependence and impulsiveness, and the effects of rigid control, cognitive simplicity and originality were weakened until complete disappearance.

General Information

Keywords: social perception, outgroup stereotyping, ingroup bias, typicality of social group, cognitive styles, divergent thinking

Journal rubric: Social Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/exppsy.2020130207

Funding. The reported study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project number 16-16-59006

Acknowledgements. The author is grateful for assistance in data collection to Gasimova V.A and Kovaleva G.V.

For citation: Baleva M.V. The Role of Cognitive Factors in the Perception of Artificial Social Groups with Different Level of Social Typicality. Eksperimental'naâ psihologiâ = Experimental Psychology (Russia), 2020. Vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 90–107. DOI: 10.17759/exppsy.2020130207. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Milena V. Baleva, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor, Department of General and Clinical Psychology, Department of Developmental Psychology, Perm State University, Perm, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7334-3635, e-mail: milenabaleva@yandex.ru

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