Copyright 2001 by the American Psychological Association Inc 0022 3514 01 S5 00 DOI I0 1037 0022 3514 81 5 828 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2001 Vol 81 No 5 828 841 Imagining Stereotypes Away The Moderation of Implicit Stereotypes Through Mental Imagery Irene V Blair Jennifer E Ma and Alison P Lenton University of Colorado at Boulder Research on implicit stereotypes has raised important questions about an individual s ability to moderate and control stereotypic responses With few strategies shown to be effective in moderating implicit effects the present research investigates a new strategy based on focused mental imagery Across 5 experiments participants who engaged in counterstereotypic mental imagery produced substantially weaker implicit stereotypes compared with participants who engaged in neutral stereotypic or no mental imagery This reduction was demonstrated with a variety of measures eliminating explanations based on response suppression or shifts in response criterion Instead the results suggest that implicit stereotypes are malleable and that controlled processes such as mental imagery may influence the stereotyping process at its early as well as later stages she may control the application of stereotypes by suppressing them compensating for their influence or concentrating on individuating information Devine Monteith 1999 Dunton Fazio 1997 Fazio Jackson Dunton Williams 1995 Fiske 1989 Plant Devine 1998 What the perceiver is not able to do according to current theory is alter the activation of implicit stereotypes A different answer to the question of control is provided by recent research that suggests people can moderate the activation of implicit stereotypes as well as control their later application given the right strategies and conditions e g Blair Banaji 1996 Gilbert ffixon 1991 Gollwitzer Schaal 1998 Macrae Bodenhausen Milne Thorn Castelli 1997 For example Blair and Banaji 1996 demonstrated that a counterstereotype CS expectancy produced significantly weaker implicit stereotypes than a stereotype expectancy especially under reduced cognitive load However the work supporting the moderation of implicit stereotypes has been criticized as either internally or externally invalid Bargh 1999 The goal of the present research is to investigate mental imagery as a new strategy to moderate implicit stereotypes Mental imagery is the conscious and intentional act of creating a mental representation of a person object or event by seeing it with the mind s eye We focus on mental imagery for several reasons First research over the past several decades has shown that mental imagery has many of the same characteristics as a real experience including concrete details causal sequences logical constraints concomitant emotional arousal and similar neurological characteristics Dadds Bovbjerg Redd Cutmore 1997 Kosslyn 1994 1995 Taylor Schneider 1989 As a consequence mental imagery has a more powerful impact on learning decision making and behavior compared with other methods of processing information Bower 1972 Gregory Cialdini Carpenter 1982 Paivio 1971 Pham Taylor 1999 Taylor Pham Rivkin Armor 1998 Second mental imagery affects the cognitive system in a manner that makes it a theoretically plausible strategy to moderate implicit processes In particular mental imagery increases the Implicit stereotypes are social category associations that become activated without the perceiver s intention or awareness when he or she is presented with a category cue Over the past decade substantial evidence has accumulated for the influence of implicit stereotypes on judgment and behavior for reviews see Bargh 1999 Blair 2001 Greenwald Banaji 1995 With that work has come concern over the controllability of such effects and the implications thereof e g Banaji Greenwald 1994 Bargh 1999 Devine 1989 Fiske 1989 If an individual is unaware of the stereotype s influence or does not have the means to control it is stereotyping inevitable Should individuals and organizations be held legally responsible for discrimination that results from implicit stereotypes At the core of these questions is the issue of control Can people control the influence and expression of implicit stereotypes One answer to this question is provided by theories of stereotyping that specify very distinct roles for implicit and explicit processes see Bargh 1999 Bodenhausen Macrae 1998 Brewer 1988 Devine 1989 Fiske Neuberg 1990 According to those theories stereotyping begins with the activation of implicit stereotypes and ends with their application to judgment or behavior If a perceiver is motivated to avoid stereotyping he or Irene V Blair Jennifer E Ma and Alison P Lenton Department of Psychology University of Colorado at Boulder Jennifer E Ma is now at the Department of Psychology University of Kansas Implementation of Multicultural Perspectives and Approaches in Research and Teaching IMPART grants from the University of Colorado greatly facilitated the research and writing of this article We thank Christine Johnson and Olympia Yearwood for their assistance with the research and we are grateful to researchers at the University of Colorado Stereotyping and Prejudice CUSP laboratory for their comments on early drafts of this article Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Irene V Blair University of Colorado Department of Psychology Muenzinger Psychology Building Boulder Colorado 80309 0345 Electronic mail may be sent to irene blair colorado edu 828 SPECIAL SECTION IMAGINING STEREOTYPES AWAY accessibility of related cognitive emotional and behavioral representations Carroll 1978 Johnson Sherman 1990 Strack Schwarz Gschneidinger 1985 For example when one imagines an airplane crash knowledge of recent accidents the potential causes and consequences of such an accident and one s emotional and behavioral readiness for the accident all become accessible When asked about the future likelihood of such an event the increased accessibility of these constructs produces an exaggerated estimate of its probability Carroll 1978 Gregory et al 1982 Sherman Cialdini Schwartzman Reynolds 1985 Sherman Skov Hervitz Stock 1981 In this manner mental imagery can function much like other sources of priming see Bargh 1996 Higgins 1996 Higgins King 1981 though it may be a particularly powerful method of priming because of its similarity to a real experience As such mental imagery has the potential to affect implicit
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