Behavior as a stereotype cue: An European Portuguese pretest on age and gender stereotypes

When it comes to the study of stereotypes, plenty of material can be of use. While personality traits tend to be the most commonly adopted, behavioral information can also be relevant, both in the study of stereotypes, as well as in other research fields (e.g., illusory correlations, memory and judgement and decision making). The purpose of this paper was to create a readily available list of behavioral sentences with stereotypicality ratings for both age (young to old) and gender (woman to man) categories, to be used in future studies. In two studies, participants judged age and gender stereotypicality of more than two hundred sentences in European Portuguese. Results were stable across both studies, using different methodologies (three alternative forced-choice task, in Study 1; bipolar rating scale, in Study 2). Relative frequencies for each choice, as well as average ratings, per behavior, are provided at the end.

Value-driven fears of modern information generations

Today, the problem of formation and life of generations is becoming very relevant. Many researchers in different countries note that representatives of the information younger generations have an increased risk of depression, anxiety and fears. In the study, we note the manifestations of modernity: transitivity of society, fluidity, “uncertainty” and etc. In this regard, young people face fluid socialization, a delay in the period of growing up and excessive parental care. There is a tendency of replacement of real contacts of young people with virtual ones, which can increase the level of anxiety. The trends of changing values in Russia in the direction of survival established earlier by Inglehart and Baker (2000) may have different prospects today. Some researchers show a high level of anxiety among young Russians. The situation with COVID-19 may aggravate these manifestations. Illusory correlations, false representations in the beliefs of young people also increase social anxiety. These realities determined the purpose of the study: to determine the value bases of young generations fears of the modern South of Russia. The sample included: schoolchildren (born in 2004-2005) - 150 people, schoolchildren of the 9th grade and 10th grade, information generation (born in 1995-1999) - 210 people, students, young workers, transition generation (born in 1965-1982) - 245 people, working adults of Rostov-on-Don. We used the following techniques: values were measured by S. Schwartz method, to determine fears we used the V. Pishchik method of determining values through actualized fears. The results of the study showed that the values of preservation and self-affirmation are more pronounced in the “Transition” and “Information” generations. The values of transcendence are expressed in all the studied generations with a greater extent in the “New” generation. The loss of culture scares the “Transitional” generation, the loss of oneself scares the “Information” generation, the information overload scares the “New” generation. We defined the value bases of the fears of the young generations of the modern South of Russia.

Clustering and Stereotyping

Social clustering and stereotyping are both unavoidable and necessary to navigate and try to make sense of the social world and yet also a source of major moral blind spots. It is part of the necessity to parse to predict, make decisions, and, ultimately, create meanings. This process leads to our natural inclination to cluster and create an information amalgam leading to much illusory correlations and biased attitudes in thinking about Blacks, Whites, Russians, Chinese, women, men, gays, straights, or Europeans as wholes having in common elusive essential characteristics. Social stereotypes have typically a negative connotation, linked to racism and all sorts of prejudices and discrimination toward minorities. However, they can be both negative and/or positive (e.g., Jews tend to be smart; Blacks are prone to be criminals). The ultimate function of social clustering and stereotypes is always to create contrasts that typically uphold one’s own group advantage, ultimately in defense of one’s own group sense of superiority and ascendance. Social stereotypes do not just help us in thinking about the social world; they can also hinder how we perform as individuals and foresee obstacles for oneself.

Normative Accounts of Illusory Correlations

When learning about the joint occurrence of different variables, individuals often manifest biases in the associations they infer. In some cases they infer an association when none is present in the observed sample. Other times they infer an association that is contrary to the one that is in fact observed. These illusory correlations are often interpreted as being the byproduct of selective processing or as the outcome of an ‘illogical’ pseudocontingency heuristic. More recently, a normative account of illusory correlations has been proposed, according to which they result from an application of Laplace’s Rule of Succession. The present work will discuss the empirical and theoretical limitations associated with this normative account, and argue for its dismissal. As an alternative, we propose a normative account that casts illusory correlations as the expected outcome of a Bayesian reasoner relying on marginal frequencies. We show that this novel account succeeds in capturing the qualitative patterns found in a corpus of published studies.

The Origin of Illusory Correlations

If the distributions of two binary variables are skewed, people erroneously perceive a correlation even if the variables are actually uncorrelated. Specifically, people perceive a correlation between the variables’ infrequent (vs. frequent) levels. While such systematic Illusory Correlations (ICs) can account for important phenomena, including erroneous stereotypes linking minority groups with infrequent attributes, the theoretical explanation is still a matter of debate. As proposed in the distinctiveness-based account, ICs arise due to a memory advantage for infrequent events. Alternatively, it has been proposed that ICs reflect ad hoc inferences from univariate base rates. In two experiments, we tested the accounts’ predictions using a standard IC paradigm followed by (1) a contingency judgment task, asking participants to directly report contingencies, and (2) a trial-by-trial source assignment task of group membership and attribute. Bayesian-hierarchical model analysis revealed that ICs in contingency judgments were positively correlated to ad hoc inferences, but uncorrelated to exemplar memory in participants’ source assignments. Moreover, inducing a focus on infrequent events improved memory for distinct events, but did not result in stronger ICs. Thus, our results support the explanation of ICs as ad hoc inferences from base rates, rather than a memory advantage for distinctive item combinations.

The link between childhood adversity and late-life mental health: evidence for the influence of early-life experiences or illusory correlations?

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) reflect stressful or traumatic early life events such as abuse, neglect, and significant household challenges. These experiences are increasingly appreciated as factors that exert influence on physical and mental functioning throughout the lifespan. Numerous studies have demonstrated dose–response relationships between the number of ACEs reported and negative health outcomes in adulthood (Anda et al., 2006). At the same time, evidence points to the role of ACEs in the development of heightened biological reactivity to stress that may serve to increase vulnerability to the development of mental and substance use disorders (e.g., Heim et al., 2010). Furthermore, the existence of sex differences in both stress reactivity and the prevalence of various forms of psychopathology in adulthood (Doom et al., 2013) raises the question of whether men and women are differentially vulnerable to the health risks posed by ACEs. Much of the work concerning ACEs has focused on outcomes as they present in middle adulthood, which may not generalize to later life, as there may be cohort effects in the prevalence of (or likelihood of reporting) ACEs. Studies finding that the newly old report greater numbers of ACEs than their more senior counterparts imply that rates of ACEs are increasing over time and may be contributing to the development of mental and substance abuse disorders (MSUDs) in the growing population of aging adults, and make a case for better understanding these associations in later life.