Browsing by Author "Köhler, Nikita Stefanie"
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- ItemThe stereotype content model and the secondary transfer effect in the South African context(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-03-09) Köhler, Nikita Stefanie; Swart, Hermann; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of PsychologyENGLISH SUMMARY: Stereotypes are cognitive schemas involved in automatic processing. Certain traits are assigned to all members of a social group regardless of the actual variation in individuals’ characteristics. Negative stereotypes constitute the cognitive underpinning of prejudices that lie at the heart of maintaining intergroup tensions and conflict (Weiten, 2018). Racialized stereotypic thinking has played a fundamental role in the development and maintenance of the apartheid system in South Africa and continues to influence prejudice and intergroup tensions in South Africa today (see Alexander & Tredoux, 2010; Talbot & Durrheim, 2012). The research described in this thesis explored South African stereotypic thinking using the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), a framework developed by Fiske et al. (1999). The SCM explores group-level stereotypes along the dimensions of perceived group warmth and perceived group competence. The present research had two aims. The first aim was to replicate the existing SCM research using traditional groups from the South African context and to establish the location of prominent South African groups within the SCM matrix. Fifteen social groups were evaluated by 640 white South African Stellenbosch University students on the dimensions of warmth and competence through the completion of an online survey. In line with the two primary SCM hypotheses the results showed that firstly, all fifteen social groups arrayed on the perceived warmth and competence, supporting the two-dimension hypothesis of the SCM (Fiske, 2018). Secondly, all social groups were rated ambivalently, high on one dimension and low on the other, supporting the ambivalent stereotype hypothesis (Fiske, 2018). Although both hypotheses were supported, a true validation of the SCM in South Africa requires the use of a more demographically representative sample. The second aim of the present research was to increase the application potential and impact of the SCM by integrating the SCM with research on the Secondary Transfer Effect (STE) of intergroup contact (Boin et al., 2021; Pettigrew, 2009). Recent advances in contact theory show that the benefits of positive intergroup contact (in the form of more positive outgroup attitudes) can extend beyond the outgroup member encountered as well as their outgroup, to include more positive attitudes towards other (secondary) outgroups, known as the Secondary Transfer Effect (STE) of contact (Pettigrew, 2009). Perceived outgroup similarity along the dimensions of warmth and competence (as generated by the SCM) has been shown by Asbrock et al. (manuscript in preparation) to be a useful tool when exploring the STE as a function of perceived outgroup similarity. As such, the present research aimed to explore the relative size of correlations between attitudes towards social groups within the same SCM quadrant (high warmth – high competence; high-warmth – low competence; low warmth – high competence; low warmth – low competence) versus those social groups in different quadrants of the SCM matrix. After rating each social group in terms of warmth and competence, participants indicated their attitudes towards each social group. The results indicated that social groups situated within the same quadrants were rated more similarly in terms of attitudes than those located in other quadrants. Although only offering limited support for the SCM as a means of operationalising group similarity, these results indicate promising trends for future research aiming to integrate the SCM and the STE.