Highly consensual trait attributions drove early national stereotype measurement.

Evidence

Katz and Braly ( 1933 ) asked Princeton University students to check traits they thought described ten national groups. Those traits of a particular group that gathered considerable consensus were seen as stereotypic of that group. For example, 78 per cent of subjects thought that Germans were scientifi c-minded, whereas 54 per cent thought that Turks were cruel. In a second study, Katz and Braly ( 1935 ) discovered that the rank order of preferences for groups rated was identical to the rankings in terms of the average desirability of the traits ascribed to those groups. — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 176

Categorization

• CANDY: 78% of Princeton students labeling Germans ‘scientific-minded’ and 54% calling Turks ‘cruel’ is a tidy, surprising bit of mid-century social science trivia.