Gender and Social Categorization: Familiarity and Ingroup Polarization in Recall and Evaluation

Abstract

Abstract The present investigation examined the role of familiarity in the categorization process. Subjects (N = 111) were asked to recall statements made by strong or weak ingroup (same sex) and outgroup (opposite sex) applicants for medical residency programs and to evaluate the target applicants. The category relevance of the social context was accentuated by using gender-like residency programs. There were no effects of category familiarity in recall, consistent with the finding of Taylor, Fiske, Etckoff, and Ruderman (1978). An ingroup polarization effect was obtained: Strong, same-sex applicants were evaluated more favorably and weak, same-sex applicants, more unfavorably than opposite-sex applicants. These results support Tesser's (1978) model of attitude polarization. Discrepancies between these findings and the outgroup polarization effects obtained by Linville and Jones (1980) are discussed in terms of the mediating influence of category relevance and outgroup novelty in the relationship between cognition and evaluation.