Altering intergroup perceptions by altering prevailing mode of cognitive representation: "they look like people"

This article reports the results of 3 studies that attempted to alter the mode of cognitive representation by training with nonsocial targets and then examined subsequent intergroup perception. In each study, participants examined an array of drinking glasses while receiving training in exemplar or prototype cognitive representation. Participants then responded to written trait descriptions of people (Experiment 1), photographs of the faces of members of European ethnic groups (Experiment 2), and full-body photographs of indigenous people (Experiment 3). Compared with prototype training, exemplar training with the nonsocial targets resulted in more complex cognitive representations of the social targets and written descriptions of the social targets that were more individuated. Discussion considers the implications of these results for the study of intergroup perception.