Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action.

TLDR

Trait concepts and stereotypes activate automatically when relevant behavior or group features are present. The study examines how automatic priming of traits and stereotypes influences self‑fulfilling prophecies and whether social behavior depends on conscious choice. Priming trait or stereotype concepts caused corresponding automatic behaviors: a rudeness cue increased interruptions, an elderly cue slowed walking, and an African American cue heightened hostility.

Abstract

Previous research has shown that trait concepts and stereotype become active automatically in the presence of relevant behavior or stereotyped-group features. Through the use of the same priming procedures as in previous impression formation research, Experiment 1 showed that participants whose concept of rudeness was printed interrupted the experimenter more quickly and frequently than did participants primed with polite-related stimuli. In Experiment 2, participants for whom an elderly stereotype was primed walked more slowly down the hallway when leaving the experiment than did control participants, consistent with the content of that stereotype. In Experiment 3, participants for whom the African American stereotype was primed subliminally reacted with more hostility to a vexatious request of the experimenter. Implications of this automatic behavior priming effect for self-fulfilling prophecies are discussed, as is whether social behavior is necessarily mediated by conscious choice processes.