Exposing people to group stereotypes increases their support for the status quo

Evidence

Conway, Pizzamiglio, and Mount (1996) demonstrated in a variety of occupational and non-occupational settings that members of low-status groups in general were consistently stereotyped in more communal, socioemotional terms, whereas members of high-status groups were stereotyped in agentic, achievement-oriented terms. Jost and Kay (2005) found that exposure to communal stereotypes of women and agentic stereotypes of men leads people to show increased levels of support for the current state of gender relations as well as for the American political and economic system in general. These studies are among the first to demonstrate that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between exposure to specific stereotypical beliefs and support for the societal status quo (see also Kay & Jost, 2003). This work also suggests that the link between stereotypes and the status quo can be largely implicit, nonconscious, and unexamined (see also Jost et al., 2004). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1407

Categorization

• SEED: An article angle: warm-and-kind stereotypes of low-status groups are not benign compliments but covert system-legitimizing machinery — the ‘benevolent’ stereotype as ideological lubrication.
• XREF: Echoes the earlier claim that praise for femininity or ‘goodness’ of subordinated groups serves to naturalize their place — comparable to the sacrificial legitimizing function in the ‘On Sacrifice’ article. — connects to: Disadvantaged groups accept stereotypes that sustain their own oppression. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 2911; Stereotypes legitimize existing social hierarchy even against people’s own interests — Susan T. Fiske et al., A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype…, 43