The Influence of Group Variability and Processing Goals on the Ease of Making Judgments about Social Categories

Abstract

This article examined the effects of group variability and processing goals on the ease of making judgments about social groups. Participants were presented with a heterogeneous or homogeneous category and were instructed either to form an impression of the group (impression set) or to attend to the similarities among, and the differences between, group members (integration set). Under impression sets, we predicted that participants would find it harder to judge heterogeneous groups as compared to homogeneous groups. Under integration sets, however, judgments were predicted to be relatively easy, regardless of group variability. These predictions were supported, regardless of whether judgment ease was operationalized via response latencies (Experiment 1) or through subjective reports (Experiment 2). Experiment 2 suggested that these effects were driven by the effects of group variability and instructional set on the importance of subtypes formed at the subordinate level. Implications of these results for research on the consequences of group variability are discussed.