The Power of Stereotypes

“The Power of Stereotypes” examines the content, dynamics, and effects of stereotypes toward groups marginalized on the basis of ethnicity or religion—paying particular attention to their intersection with gender. To do so, the project combines multiple methodological approaches: closed scales, open-text responses, manual and automated coding, indirect measures (IAT via MIND.set), and field experiments on real-world discrimination (ADIS, GEMM).

The theoretical framework draws on models such as the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske et al., 2007) and the ABC model (Koch et al., 2016), which define key dimensions of social perception, including warmth, competence, and progressiveness. The project extends these approaches through an intersectional perspective: stereotypes about groups are not merely additive across categories but change qualitatively through their interaction (see also Ghavami & Peplau, 2013; Nicolas & Fiske, 2023).

Initial analyses reveal clear patterns such as androcentrism (stereotypes about groups primarily reflect attributions to their male members) as well as distinct stereotypical content for female members of minority groups (Wiemers, Di Stasio & Veit, 2024). The project also examines how stereotypes relate to actual patterns of discrimination and the role of different research designs.

• Intersectional stereotypes have so far been studied only sporadically.
• Open-ended methods and automated text analysis remain underrepresented in stereotype research.
• The link between stereotypes and real-world discrimination has rarely been examined systematically.

We are interested in the content, measurement, and consequences of stereotypes. We aim to examine whether classical stereotype dimensions (especially warmth and competence) adequately capture stereotypes toward migrant groups and to understand the dynamics of stereotypes at the intersection of ethnicity and gender. Another key focus is the role of research design (bottom-up vs. top-down, manual vs. automated coding, closed scales vs. open-ended formats). A third central question concerns the consequences of stereotypes—specifically, whether they reliably predict real-world behavior toward marginalized groups.

The overall project consists of several subprojects, some of which build on existing datasets. These employ and systematically combine different methodological approaches. In addition to measuring stereotypes using closed scales based on established psychological models (Stereotype Content Model, Fiske et al., 2007; ABC Model, Koch et al., 2016), the project uses open-ended response formats that are coded both manually and automatically (see Wiemers, Di Stasio & Veit, 2024; with comparable data from Germany), as well as indirect measurement techniques in a cross-national design (e.g., EqualStrength and MIND.set). On the outcomes side, survey-based attitude measures are complemented by results from field experiments (ADIS: Veit & Yemane, 2018; GEMM: Lancee et al., 2019), which are linked to survey findings on stereotypes.

The main sub-studies on the content of stereotypes toward migrant and intersectional groups, as well as on methodological aspects, are still ongoing. Published findings point to androcentrism (stereotypes about migrant groups primarily reflect those about male group members) and to complex, distinct stereotypes about female minority members (Wiemers, Di Stasio & Veit, 2024). They also suggest that the perspective from which stereotypes are reported (societal vs. personal views) influences their valence (Kotzur et al., 2020).

• Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., & Glick, P. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: Warmth and competence. Trends in cognitive sciences, 11(2), 77-83. ttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.005 
• Ghavami, N., & Peplau, L. A. (2013). An Intersectional Analysis of Gender and Ethnic Stereotypes: Testing Three Hypotheses. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37(1), 113–127. doi.org/10.1177/0361684312464203  
• Koch, A., Yzerbyt, V., Abele, A., Ellemers, N., & Fiske, S. T. (2021). Social evaluation: Comparing models across interpersonal, intragroup, intergroup, several-group, and many-group contexts. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 63, pp. 1-68). Academic Press. 
• Koch, A., Imhoff, R., Unkelbach, C., Nicolas, G., Fiske, S., Terache, J., Carrier, A., Yzerbyt, V. (2020). Groups’ warmth is a personal matter: Understanding consensus on stereotype dimensions reconciles adversarial models of social evaluation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 89, 103995. doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.103995 
• Kotzur, P. F., Veit, S., Namyslo, A., Holthausen, M. A., Wagner, U., & Yemane, R. (2020). ‘Society thinks they are cold and/or incompetent, but I do not’: Stereotype content ratings depend on instructions and the social group's location in the stereotype content space. British Journal of Social Psychology, 59(4), 1018-1042. 
• Lancee, B., G. Birkelund, M. Coenders, V. Di Stasio, M. Fernández Reino, A. Heath, R. Koopmans, et al. (2019). The GEMM Study: A Cross-National Harmonized Field Experiment on Labour Market Discrimination – Codebook. gemm2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GEMM-WP3-codebook.pdf 
•  Lancee, B., G. Birkelund, M. Coenders, V. Di Stasio, M. Fernández Reino, A. Heath, R. Koopmans, et al. (2019). “The GEMM Study: A Cross-National Harmonized Field Experiment on Labour Market Discrimination” – Technical Report. gemm2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GEMM-WP3-technical-report.pdf 
• Lee, T. L., & Fiske, S. T. (2006). Not an outgroup, but not yet an ingroup: Immigrants in the stereotype content model. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30, 751–768. doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2006.06.005 
• Nicolas, G., & Fiske, S. T. (2023). Valence biases and emergence in the stereotype content of intersecting social categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(9), 2520–2543. doi.org/10.1037/xge0001416  
• Nicolas, G., Fiske, S. T., Koch, A., Imhoff, R., Unkelbach, C., Terache, J., Carrier, A., & Yzerbyt, V. (2022). Relational versus structural goals prioritize different social information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(4), 659–682. doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000366 
• Veit, S., & Yemane, R. (2020). Judging Without Knowing: How people evaluate others based on phenotype and country of origin–Technical Report (No. SP VI 2020-101). WZB Discussion Paper. hdl.handle.net/10419/215833 
• Veit, S., & Yemane, R. (2018). The ADIS study: a large-scale correspondence test on labor market discrimination in Germany - Technical Report. (Discussion Papers / Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Forschungsschwerpunkt Migration und Diversität, Abteilung Migration, Integration, Transnationalisierung, SP VI 2018-103). Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH. hdl.handle.net/10419/178706 
• Wiemers, S. A., Stasio, V. D., & Veit, S. (2024). Stereotypes about Muslims in the Netherlands: An Intersectional Approach. Social Psychology Quarterly,  https://doi.org/10.1177/01902725231219688