Warmth and competence judgments predict distinct emotional reactions to groups

Evidence

Other approaches also consider that emotions can be based in perceivers’ group memberships, and directed at other distinct groups in society. Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, and Xu (2002) developed the Stereotype Content Model, which links two dimensions of group stereotypes (warmth and competence) to emotional reactions to groups (see also Fiske, ch. 3 this volume). A group’s perceived competence is closely connected to its societal status, and warmth to the degree of competitive relationship between the perceiver’s own group and the target group. Warm and competent groups (e.g., middle-class Americans) elicit pride, while groups attributed competence plus a lack of warmth (e.g., Asian Americans, Jews) are targets of envy. Incompetent (low-status, helpless) groups may elicit warm feelings of pity (e.g., the elderly), whereas incompetent groups that are perceived as competing for resources and therefore as cold (e.g., welfare recipients) elicit contempt. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2272

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the Stereotype Content Model’s two-dimension (warmth/competence) framework mapping onto four emotions: pride, envy, pity, contempt.
• SEED: The four-cell warm/competent matrix is a ready-made analytical tool for decoding contemporary political rhetoric about groups — who gets painted as envied-but-cold (elites) vs pitied-but-incompetent (the ‘helpless’).
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2272
• XREF: connects to: Perceived status drives competence judgments while perceived competition strips warmth from envied outgroups — Susan T. Fiske et al., A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype…, 42