Hamilton & Gifford - illusory correlation

Question 1

Background - Hamilton

Answer 1

1. American
2. Awards for contribution to social cognition

Question 2

Background - Gifford

Answer 2

1. Canadian
2. Professor at Uni of Victoria

Question 3

Background - social cognition

Answer 3

1. Walter Lippman - limited information processing capacity in humans, related to invention of computers, avoid information overload by summarising information, selecting information (reducing stimuli and distractions), generalising
2. All hallmarks of stereotypes
   1970s - cognitive psychologists turn to social phenomena
3. Basic premise - person = faulty information processing device due to limited capacity, people are ‘cognitive misers’ (ideas about more education, less discriminatory)
4. Aim - social phenomena can be explained without political and sociological theories but with social cognition instead
5. Explaining social structure in cognitive terms, starting point of stereotypes
6. Stereotype - negative, rigid, false beliefs, creates discrimination and social barriers
7. Questions - why so many negative views of ethnic minorities, why do different people share the same negative views, is it the same cognitive mechanism
8. Hamilton and Gifford - as a consequence of the need to simplify, we only pay attention to those things that demand attention, often distinctive (novel and rare), statistical infrequency may bias thinking by creating distinctiveness

Question 4

Background - illusory correlation

Answer 4

1. Loren and Jean Chapman - first use of term illusory correlation, refers to unrelated clinical concepts that are seen as related because they were expected to relate to each other
2. Hamilton and Gifford - minority group members are by definition rare, undesirable behaviour is distinct, negative behaviour by minority group members in then doubly distinct and therefore particularly attention grabbing, attention grabbing gets stored in memory
3. Illusory correlations - strangely co-occurring events, superstitions?

Question 5

The study - study 1

Answer 5

1. 39 statements that described positive or negative behaviour shown by a member of group A or group B
2. Instructions - group B is smaller than group A, there will be fewer statements about group B
3. 26 statements about group A, 13 about group B
4. 27 statements about positive behaviour, 12 negative
   Prediction:
5. If theoretical assumptions are correct that rare/distinct characteristics are better remembered, minority members of group B are rare, and undesirable behaviour is more distinct
6. Then hypothesis = participants rate group B more negatively than group A despite the ratio of desirable to undesirable behaviour being the same for both groups = illusory correlation
   Measurement:
7. Assignment task - all 39 behaviours presented, Ps asked to say whether the behaviour was shown by a member of A or B
8. Frequency estimation - how many negative behaviours were performed by A and B - correlation coefficient over 0 indicates illusory correlation
9. Trait ratings - A and B are rated on a number of trait dimensions

Question 6

The study - study 2

Answer 6

1. Undesirable behaviour > desirable behaviour
2. Assignment estimate
3. Results show again that statistically infrequent behaviour (in this case desirable) is more frequently remembered for the minority group
4. Illusory correlation is due to distinctiveness/rarity, not desirability

Question 7

Debate and controversy - external validity

Answer 7

Stereotypes are often very specific rather than about positive/negative evaluation of a group in relation to another group

Question 8

debate and controversy - mere exposure

Answer 8

1. Greater frequency of group A members leads to familiarity
2. Does not explain study 2 findings

Question 9

debate and controversy - conceptual criticism

Answer 9

1. Distinctiveness may not be the key explanatory feature but skewed distribution combined with statistical infrequency
2. Fiedler - random information loss likely because of large number of behaviours that need to be remembered, random information loss will disadvantage small groups
3. Smith - focus on absolute number creates overly positive (study 1) or negative (Study 2) impression

Question 10

debate and controversy - meaning based explanation

Answer 10

1. McGarty et al - based on self categorisation theory, participants will try to find out how the groups differ as this will help them to operate in a complex environment, stereotypes are not inherently negative but are flexible, complex and accurate as they need to be adaptive, motivated to distinguish
2. Follow up study by Haslam et al - replication of original study except participants were told of a difference between groups before given the information, hypothesis was that no illusory correlation because there is no need to differentiate between the groups anymore, no illusory correlation effect

Question 11

impact and legacy - follow up research

Answer 11

Hamilton and Sherman - showed that white americans overestimate the arrest rate of african americans (minority group, arrest rate being a distinctive event)

Question 12

impact and legacy - stereotype formation

Answer 12

1. The most widely cited account of stereotype formation
2. Explains a prominent social phenomenon in simple terms
3. Generalisation - social context appears unnecessary
4. Robustness - meta analysis by mullen and johnson shows that the effect is robust despite being of small size
5. Murphy et al - knowing about illusory correlations can decrease them
6. But meaning-based explanations suggest that a purely cognitive explanation falls short

Question 13

impact and legacy - social cognition

Answer 13

1. Key example of social cognitive approach to the study of social phenomena, in particular stereotyping
2. Start of a cognitive revolution in social psychology