The Effects of SelfEsteem on Implicit Stereotypes

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The Effects of Self-Esteem on Implicit Stereotypes

• Katie Fisher and Jenny McGuinness

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Stereotyping
When an individual encounters another, he/she
routinely categorizes that person in terms of
salient features. (Bertram et al., 2002)
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Automatic vs. Controlled Processes

• Automatic processes are mental processes that
  occur without conscious effort.
• Controlled processes are mental processes that we
  consciously control.

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Automatic Processes vs. Personal Beliefs

• Stereotypes can be learned in childhood and
  become automatic. In this way, stereotypes can
  affect us without our conscious involvement.
• (Devine, 1989)

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Implicit Association Test
This test assesses implicit attitudes people have
by having them quickly categorize stimulus words
using two response keys.
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Formation of the IAT

• Most IAT tests are made up of 5 blocks
• Initial target-concept
• Attribute discrimination
• Initial combined task
• Reversed target-concept
• Reversed combined task

• Each block starts with short instructions for the
  specific task and requests the participant to
  respond as fast as possible. (Bertram et.al,
  2002)

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Initial Target-Concept
Instructions As quickly as possible hit the
left key if the face is African American and the
right key if the face is European American
African American
European American
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Attribute Discrimination
Instructions As quickly as possible hit the
left key if the word is good and the right
key if the word is bad
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Initial Combined Task (Critical Block 1!!)
European American Bad
African American Good
Instructions As quickly as possible hit the
left key if the face or word is African American
or good and the right key if the word or face
is European American or bad
Face OR Word
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Reversed Target Concept

• Instructions As quickly as possible hit the
  left key if the face is European American and the
  right key if the face is African American

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Reversed Combined Task (Critical block 2!!)
Instructions As quickly as possible hit the
left key if the face or word is European
American or good and the right key if the word
or face is African American or bad
European American Good
African American Bad
Face OR Word
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IAT Effect
It is presumed that a larger IAT effect or
larger gap between congruent and non-congruent
reaction times - shows that the individual has a
stronger association in memory between the
specific concept pairings (i.e. European
American-good or African American-bad) that make
the judgment faster. For example White
individuals typically categorize more quickly
when the paired words are white or good or
black or bad than with opposite pairings
(McConnell Leibold, 2000)
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Self-Esteem

• An affective component of the self, consisting
  of a persons positive and negative
  self-evaluations.
• (Brem, Kassin, Fein, 2002)
• Personal Self-esteem based on self perception
• Collective Self esteem based on group membership

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Self-esteem Stereotypes

• Those who base their self-esteem on their own
  self perception tend to make up for low esteem by
  picking on others in order to raise self-esteem

Those who exhibit collective self-esteem make an
attempt to remain positive about social identity,
and therefore self-esteem -(De Cremer, 2000)
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Current Study
This study will look at the effects of an
individuals self-esteem (both personal and
collective) on his/her unconscious tendency to
stereotype.
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Our Hypothesis
We believe that those with low self-esteem will
have more unconscious stereotypes than those with
high self-esteem.
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Participants

• Small Midwestern Liberal Arts College
• 41 total subjects
• 19 Male
• 22 Female
• Between ages of 18-22
• Freshman 14
• Sophomore 14
• Junior 5
• Senior 9

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Procedure

• Informed Consent
• Demographics
• SES status
• Age
• Number of siblings
• Major Minor

• Self-Esteem Scales
• Personal Self-Esteem (PSE) a .87
• Using Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory
• Example question I am able to do things as
  well as most other people.
• Collective Self-Esteem (CSE) a .85
• Example question I am a worthy member of the
  social groups I belong to.

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IAT Procedure

• IAT
• Participants given specific instructions in order
  to take the IAT http//psychexps.olemiss.edu/Exps
  /IAT_Race/IATRace.htm
• Before running subjects, set up project
• Placed assigned participant number in as their
  guest name.
• Received another number/letter code
• To get our data ran selected our project
• Debriefing

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IAT Effect
IAT F (1,39) 75.99, p lt.01 Gender F (1,39)
.15, (n.s.) IAT x Gender F (1,39) .90,
(n.s.)
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IAT Scoring
IAT Difference Time NC - C
-After obtaining the participants times offline,
their congruent time was subtracted from their
non-congruent time to obtain their IAT difference
times.
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Overall Results
IAT Dif.
CSE
PSE
IAT Dif.
PSE
Overall, we found no significant correlations
with the IAT difference which means our
hypothesis was not supported.
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Results by Gender - Female
IAT Dif.
CSE
PSE
IAT Dif.
PSE
Females show a trend towards a significant
relationship between IAT and CSE
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Results by Gender - Male
IAT Dif.
PSE
CSE
IAT Dif.
PSE
Although with the men there is a significant
correlation between IAT and CSE, it is a positive
correlation which indicates the higher
self-esteem men have, the more likely they are to
implicitly stereotype.
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Scatterplot
There is one outlier that could be driving the
correlation, what would happen if it was taken
out? Lets find out
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We Found Out
IAT
CSE
PSE
IAT
PSE
The correlation was no longer significant which
leads us to believe that the correlation was not
real.
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Discussion

• Hypothesis not supported why?
• IAT unconscious
• PSE and CSE are conscious

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Discussion Continued

• CSE and PSE highly correlated for women but not
  for men
• What does this mean?
• Possible gender difference in collective and
  personal self-esteemwomen tend to base
  self-esteem more on group membership while men
  base their self-esteem on a more personal level.

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Limitations

• Small, Liberal Arts College
• Most males were from a single fraternity
• Only had one non-Caucasian participant (Pacific
  Islander)

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Possible Future Directions

• Develop an implicit measure of self-esteem
• Greenwald et. al (2002)
• Look at the relationship between personal and
  collective self-esteem in men and women
• More diversity in the sample

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Questions