Research On Power Stereotypes Based On Explicit And Implicit Measures

"Power stereotype" is the generalized and fixed ideas on the attributes of individual/group of high-power and low-power. The study concern the existence and stability of power stereotypes, and also concern the influences of self involvement and priming task on power stereotypes.We hope this study can not only enriches the content of stereotype research and the power of psychological research, but also provides the theory basis for the development of harmonious society policy.In Study1, the existence of power stereotypes was observed from an explicit level and an implicit level by the methods of explicit report method (Experiment1) and GNAT (Experiment2). It showed that the high-power objects’score of competence were significantly higher than that of low-power objects, while the low-power objects’scores of warmth and friendliness were significantly higher than the high-power objects in the explicit measurement; The d’of the task of "high-power concept, high-power attributes" and "low-power concept, low-power attributes" were significantly higher than those of the other two tasks in the implicit measurement.Study2investigated the stability of power stereotype from the explicit level and implicit level, which manipulate power by experiential prime. The explicit measurement showed there was significant main effect of the power of targets on competence, talent, warmth and friendliness,and there was significant interaction effect between power traits and power priming, with the low-power trait participants’score of competence and talent of low-power objects were significantly higher than high-power trait participants under the low-power priming; The implicit measurement showed that there was significant task main effect on d’;At the same time, there was significant power traits main effect and power priming main effect on d’under the task of "low-power concept, low-power attributes", with the d’of low-power trait participants were significantly higher than the d’of high-power trait participants, the d’of the participants with low-power priming were significantly lower than the d’of the control group and the participants with high-power priming.Study3let the participants in different self-involvement by episodic priming, then explored whether the self-involvement influence power stereotype at the explicit level (Experiment5) and implicit level (Experiment6).The explicit measurement showed a significant episodic priming main effect on competence and warmth, with the significant differences between the high-power objects’scores and the low-power objects’scores in high and low self-involvement. And it also showed a significant interaction effect between gender and episodic priming on friendliness, with the male’s scores of low-power objects under the high self-involvement were significantly higher than that of low self-involvement; The implicit measurement showed significant self-involvement and social threat main effects on the d; under the task of "low-power concept, low-power attributes", with the d’of participants with low self-involvement were lower than the participants with high self-involvement, the d’of participants with low social threat were lower than the participants with high social threat and the control group. There was a significant interaction effect between self-involvement and social threat on the d’under the task of "high-power concept, high-power attributes", with no differences between the d’of participants with high self-involvement and the d’of participants with low self-involvement under low social threat, and with the d’of participants with low self-involvement were significantly higher than the d’of participants with high self-involvement under high social threat.Study4(Experiment7) explored the effect of priming tasks on the perceivers’power stereotype by implicit and explicit task separation paradigm. It showed a significant priming task main effect and a direction of priming stimulus main effect on the reaction of stereotyped information, with reaction time of implicit priming was significantly less than the reaction time of explicit priming, reaction time of straight stimulus was significantly less than reaction time of inverse and reverse stimulus; And there was a significant interaction effect between priming task and direction of priming word, with reaction times differences of different direction of priming stimulus in both explicit and implicit priming.The results indicate:The first, Power stereotype exists at the implicit level and explicit level, which shows the congruence of implicit and explicit power stereotype, and shows the basic characteristics of mixed stereotype; The high-power people is often perceived high in competence, low in warmth, and the low-power people is often perceived low in competence, high in warmth.Second, Power stereotype is relatively stable in general. It is influenced by the perceivers’power changing under given conditions, which shows the discrepancies between explicit and implicit level. At the explicit level, the low-power trait participants’"low-competence" stereotype of low-power objects and "low-warmth" stereotype of high-power objects all weakened when reduce their level of power. At the implicit level, the participants of low-power trait have stronger stereotypes of low-power people than participants of high-power trait; All participants’stereotypes of low-power people weakened when reducing their power. Third, power stereotype is influenced by the perceivers’ context. At the explicit. level, there are gender differences in the influences of self-involvement on power stereotypes, only male participants show stronger stereotypes of "low-power people, high-friendliness" and "high-power people, low-friendliness" when priming with high self-involvement situation. At the implicit level, there are common effects of self-involvement and social threat on the stereotypes of high-power people, and respective effects on the stereotypes of low-power people.Fourth, Power stereotype is influenced by the priming task of experiment. For the judgment of power stereotypic stimulus, there is advantage effect of priming task and direction of priming stimulus. And the judgment is influenced by the two factors.