Skip to main content
Search
Search
    Quick Search anywhere
    Quick search in Citations
Advanced Search
Skip main navigationClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Previous article
Next article
Original Article

The Effects of Status on Perceived Warmth and Competence

Malleability of the Relationship Between Status and Stereotype Content

Published Online:May 10, 2010https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000012

Abstract

Research has shown that perceived group status positively predicts competence stereotypes but does not positively predict warmth stereotypes. The present study identified circumstances in which group status positively predicts both warmth and competence judgments. Students (N = 86) rated one of two groups (psychologists vs. engineers) presented as either being low or high in social status on warmth and competence. Results showed that status positively predicted competence stereotypes for both groups, but warmth stereotypes only for psychologists, for whom warmth traits are perceived to be functional in goal achievement. Moreover, for psychologists perceived warmth mediated the relationship between status and perceived competence. Results are discussed in terms of the contextual malleability of the relationship between perceived status, warmth, and competence.

References

  • Abele, A. E. , Cuddy, A. J. C. , Judd, C. M. , & Yzerbyt, V. (2008). Fundamental dimensions of social judgment. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 1063–1065. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Baron, R. M. , Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Berger, J. , Ridgeway, C. L. , Zelditch, M. (2002). Construction of status and referential structures. Sociological Theory, 20, 157–179. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Betancor, V. , Rodriguez, A. , Rodriguez, R. , Leyens, J.-P. , Quiles, M. N. (2005). The effect of status on sociability and competence stereotypical dimensions. Psicothema, 17, 297–302. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Caprariello, P. A. , Cuddy, A. J. C. , Fiske, S. T. (2009). Social structure shapes cultural stereotypes and emotions: A causal test of the Stereotype Content Model. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 12, 147–155. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Conway, M. , Pizzamiglio, M. T. , Mount, L. (1996). Status, communality, and agency: Implications for stereotypes of gender and other groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 25–38. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cuddy, A. J. C. , Fiske, S. T. , Glick, P. (2007). The BIAS map: Behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 631–648. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cuddy, A. J. C. , Fiske, S. T. , Glick, P. (2008). Warmth and competence as universal dimensions of social perception: The stereotype content model and the BIAS map. In M. P. Zanna, (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 61–149). San Diego: Academic Press. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cuddy, A. J. C. , Fiske, S. T. , Kwan, V. S. Y. , Glick, P. , Demoulin, S. , Leyens, J.-P. , et al. (2009). Stereotype content model holds across cultures: Toward universal similarities and some differences. British Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 1–33. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Eagly, A. H. , Diekman, A. B. (2005). What is the problem? Prejudice as an attitude-in-context. In J. F. Dovidio, P. Glick, L. A. Rudman, (Eds.), On the nature of prejudice: Fifty years after Allport (pp. 19–35). Oxford: Blackwell. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Eagly, A. H. , Karau, S. J. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109, 573–598. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Eagly, A. H. , Steffen, V. J. (1984). Gender stereotypes and attitudes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 735–754. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Fiske, S. T. (1993). Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist, 48, 621–628. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Fiske, S. T. , Cuddy, A. J. C. , Glick, P. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: Warmth and competence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 77–83. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Fiske, S. T. , Cuddy, A. J. C. , Glick, P. , & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 878–902. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Fiske, S. T. , Xu, J. , Cuddy, A. C. , Glick, P. (1999). (Dis)respecting versus (Dis)liking: Status and interdependence predict ambivalent stereotypes of competence and warmth. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 473–489. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Glick, P. (1991). Trait-based and sex-based discrimination in occupational prestige, occupational salary, and hiring. Sex Roles, 25, 351–378. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Glick, P. , Wilk, K. , & Perreault, M. (1995). Images of occupations: Components of gender and status in occupational stereotypes. Sex Roles, 32, 565–582. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Jost, J. T. , & Kay, A. C. (2005). Exposure to benevolent sexism and complementary gender stereotypes: Consequences for specific and diffuse forms of system justification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 498–509. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Judd, C. M. , James-Hawkins, L. , Yzerbyt, V. , Kashima, Y. (2005). Fundamental dimensions of social judgment: Understanding the relations between judgments of competence and warmth. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 899–913. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kay, A. C. , & Jost, J. T. (2003). Complementary justice: Effects of “poor but happy” and “poor but honest” stereotype exemplars on system justification and implicit activation of the justice motive. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 823–837. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Lin, M. H. , Kwan, V. S. Y. , Cheung, A. , Fiske, S. T. (2005). Stereotype content model explains prejudice for an envied outgroup: Scale of anti-Asian American stereotypes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 34–47. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Phalet, K. , & Poppe, E. (1997). Competence and morality dimensions of national and ethnic stereotypes: A study in six eastern-European countries. European Journal of Social Psychology, 27, 703–723. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Poppe, E. , & Linssen, H. (1999). In-group favoritism and the reflection of realistic dimensions of difference between national states in Central and Eastern European nationality stereotypes. British Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 85–102. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Preacher, K. J. , Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 717–731. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Suitner, C. , Maass, A. (2008). The role of valence in the perception of agency and communion. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 1073–1082. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Webb, A. R. , & Speer, J. R. (1986). Prototype of a profession: Psychology’s public image. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 17, 5–9. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar