Solo-status group members are explained by their category when they dissent

Evidence

From the perspective of Self-Categorization Theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), Oakes, Turner, and Haslam (1991) maintained that attribution to the actor’s category membership is a joint function of the accessibility of the category membership and the fit between the observed behavior and categorical expectations. In one of their experiments, these researchers demonstrated that when an individual group member was in a “solo status” with regard to gender (i.e., the only male in a group along with five females, or vice versa), his or her deviant opinion against all other members was particularly likely to be subject to a categorical explanation (i.e., “Because men (women) typically hold this kind of view”). In other words, the covariation between the salient gender category and the distinctly deviant behavior facilitated the category-based attribution. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 115

Categorization

• XREF: A mechanism-level claim (covariation of salient category and deviant behavior drives categorical attribution) that could complicate the reader’s Allport thread: categorical attribution is not pure bias but tracks perceived covariation, a more rational reading of the same phenomenon.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 115