Stereotype-based priming without stereotype activation: A tale of two priming tasks

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Stereotype-based priming effects are well-documented.
• The influence of different sequential-priming tasks on these effects and their theoretical implications for person perception are less understood.
• The underlying processes (stimulus vs. response biases) generating priming remain largely unspecified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the emergence and origin of stereotype-based priming.
• To differentiate between stimulus and response biases in stereotype priming.
• To investigate the role of task type (semantic vs. response priming) in stereotype effects.

Main Methods:

• Utilized both semantic-priming and response-priming tasks.
• Employed hierarchical drift diffusion model analysis.
• Compared information uptake and evidential requirements for stereotype-consistent and inconsistent responses.

Main Results:

• Stereotype-based priming effects emerged only with response-priming tasks, not semantic-priming tasks.
• A response bias, characterized by lower evidence requirements for stereotype-consistent responses, underpinned the priming effect.
• Information uptake was faster for stereotype-inconsistent targets, indicating efficient processing.

Conclusions:

• Stereotype-based priming originates from a response bias, not automatic stereotype activation.
• The findings challenge existing theoretical models of person perception.
• Task selection critically moderates stereotype-based priming effects.