When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated

Procedures for examining whether treatment effects on an outcome are mediated and/or moderated have been well developed and are routinely applied. The mediation question focuses on the intervening mechanism that produces the treatment effect. The moderation question focuses on factors that affect the magnitude of the treatment effect. It is important to note that these two processes may be combined in informative ways, such that moderation is mediated or mediation is moderated. Although some prior literature has discussed these possibilities, their exact definitions and analytic procedures have not been completely articulated. The purpose of this article is to define precisely both mediated moderation and moderated mediation and provide analytic strategies for assessing each.

Fundamental dimensions of social judgment: Understanding the relations between judgments of competence and warmth

In seems there are two dimensions that underlie most judgments of traits, people, groups, and cultures. Although the definitions vary, the first makes reference to attributes such as competence, agency, and individualism, and the second to warmth, communality, and collectivism. But the relationship between the two dimensions seems unclear. In trait and person judgment, they are often positively related; in group and cultural stereotypes, they are often negatively related. The authors report 4 studies that examine the dynamic relationship between these two dimensions, experimentally manipulating the location of a target of judgment on one and examining the consequences for the other. In general, the authors' data suggest a negative dynamic relationship between the two, moderated by factors the impact of which they explore.

The Influence of Afrocentric Facial Features in Criminal Sentencing

Prior research has shown that within a racial category, people with more Afrocentric facial features are presumed more likely to have traits that are stereotypic of Black Americans compared with people with less Afrocentric features. The present study investigated whether this form of feature-based stereotyping might be observed in criminal-sentencing decisions. Analysis of a random sample of inmate records showed that Black and White inmates, given equivalent criminal histories, received roughly equivalent sentences. However, within each race, inmates with more Afrocentric features received harsher sentences than those with less Afrocentric features. These results are consistent with laboratory findings, and they suggest that although racial stereotyping as a function of racial category has been successfully removed from sentencing decisions, racial stereotyping based on the facial features of the offender is a form of bias that is largely overlooked.

The Automaticity of Race and Afrocentric Facial Features in Social Judgments

Four experiments were conducted to examine the automaticity of stereotyping based on racial category and (within-race) Afrocentric facial features. Results showed that both forms of stereotyping are efficient processes, able to operate when cognitive resources are highly restricted. The 2 differed, however, in their controllability. Participants demonstrated that they were sensitized to race-based stereotypes and able to control that influence to a significant degree. In contrast, participants appeared to be largely unaware of using Afrocentric features to make stereotypic inferences, and they proved unable to avoid doing so, even when they were given explicit information about the process and they demonstrated that they could easily and reliably identify the relevant features.

The police officer's dilemma: using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals

Using a simple videogame, the effect of ethnicity on shoot/don't shoot decisions was examined. African American or White targets, holding guns or other objects, appeared in complex backgrounds. Participants were told to "shoot" armed targets and to "not shoot" unarmed targets. In Study 1, White participants made the correct decision to shoot an armed target more quickly if the target was African American than if he was White, but decided to "not shoot" an unarmed target more quickly if he was White. Study 2 used a shorter time window, forcing this effect into error rates. Study 3 replicated Study 1's effects and showed that the magnitude of bias varied with perceptions of the cultural stereotype and with levels of contact, but not with personal racial prejudice. Study 4 revealed equivalent levels of bias among both African American and White participants in a community sample. Implications and potential underlying mechanisms are discussed.

The role of Afrocentric features in person perception: judging by features and categories

Four studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that group-related physical features may directly activate related stereotypes, leading to more stereotypic inferences over and above those resulting from categorization. As predicted, targets with more Afrocentric features were judged as more likely to have traits stereotypic of African Americans. This effect was found with judgments of African Americans and of European Americans. Furthermore, the effect was not eliminated when a more sensitive measure of categorization processes (category accessibility) was used or when the judgement context made category distinctions salient. Of additional interest was the finding that category accessibility independently affected judgment, such that targets who could be more quickly categorized as group members were judged more stereotypically.

On the role of familiarity with units of measurement in categorical accentuation: Tajfel and Wilkes (1963) revisited and replicated

The present article provides evidence for the role of participants' familiarity with units of measurement in categorical accentuation with unidimensional physical estimates. Belgian and American participants estimated the lengths of lines varying in length. Depending on the condition, the lines were or were not systematically associated with categorical labels, and the estimates were made either in inches or in centimeters. Consistent with our predictions, (a) categorical accentuation was higher when the lines were systematically categorized than when they were not, and (b) this effect was stronger when participants reported their estimates in an unfamiliar measurement unit (i.e., Belgian participants using inches, and American participants using centimeters). These findings support the view that people's reliance on categorical information is more likely to emerge given uncertain contexts of judgment. Additionally, they may help explain why researchers have had difficulties replicating the categorical accentuation effect in the past.

Effects of power on perceived and objective group variability: evidence that more powerful groups are more variable

The perception of group variability is affected by social power and status. Three different mechanisms may be responsible for these effects: (a) the power of the perceiver affects perceived group variability; (b) the power of the perceived group affects its perceived variability; and (c) the power of the group affects its actual variability. Two studies are reported to tease apart these three mechanisms and provide support for the third. In the first study, high- and low-power groups interacted and subsequently judged each other. In the second study, participants observed and rated the Study 1 groups, either knowing their power relationship or not. Results suggest that members of high-power groups manifest greater interpersonal variability than members of low-power groups.

Spontaneous prejudice in context: variability in automatically activated attitudes

The goal of the research reported in this article was to examine whether automatic group attitudes and stereotypes, commonly thought to be fixed responses to a social category cue, are sensitive to changes in the situational context. Two experiments demonstrated such variability of automatic responses due to changes in the stimulus context. In Study 1 White participants' implicit attitudes toward Blacks varied as a result of exposure to either a positive (a family barbecue) or a negative (a gang incident) stereotypic situation. Study 2 demonstrated similar context effects under clearly automatic processing conditions. Here, the use of different background pictures (church interior vs. street corner) for Black and White face primes affected participants' racial attitudes as measured by a sequential priming task. Implications for the concept of automaticity in social cognition are discussed.

Spontaneous prejudice in context: variability in automatically activated attitudes

The goal of the research reported in this article was to examine whether automatic group attitudes and stereotypes, commonly thought to be fixed responses to a social category cue, are sensitive to changes in the situational context. Two experiments demonstrated such variability of automatic responses due to changes in the stimulus context. In Study 1 White participants' implicit attitudes toward Blacks varied as a result of exposure to either a positive (a family barbecue) or a negative (a gang incident) stereotypic situation. Study 2 demonstrated similar context effects under clearly automatic processing conditions. Here, the use of different background pictures (church interior vs. street corner) for Black and White face primes affected participants' racial attitudes as measured by a sequential priming task. Implications for the concept of automaticity in social cognition are discussed.

The communication of social stereotypes: the effects of group discussion and information distribution on stereotypic appraisals

Stereotypes are fundamentally social constructs, formulated and modified through discussion and interaction with others. The present studies examined the impact of group discussion on stereotypes. In both studies, groups of participants discussed their impressions about a hypothetical target group after having read behaviors performed by target group members. These behaviors included both stereotypic and counterstereotypic examples, and the distribution of these behaviors varied across discussion group members. In some groups only 1 member knew of the counterstereotypic behaviors; in other groups this information was distributed across all group members. In general, discussion led to a polarization of the target group stereotypes, but this effect was lessened when the counterstereotypic behaviors were concentrated in 1 group member. In this case, these counterstereotypic behaviors were discussed more and retained better.

Estimating and testing mediation and moderation in within-subject designs

Analyses designed to detect mediation and moderation of treatment effects are increasingly prevalent in research in psychology. The mediation question concerns the processes that produce a treatment effect. The moderation question concerns factors that affect the magnitude of that effect. Although analytic procedures have been reasonably well worked out in the case in which the treatment varies between participants, no systematic procedures for examining mediation and moderation have been developed in the case in which the treatment varies within participants. The authors present an analytic approach to these issues using ordinary least squares estimation.

Estimating and testing mediation and moderation in within-subject designs

Analyses designed to detect mediation and moderation of treatment effects are increasingly prevalent in research in psychology. The mediation question concerns the processes that produce a treatment effect. The moderation question concerns factors that affect the magnitude of that effect. Although analytic procedures have been reasonably well worked out in the case in which the treatment varies between participants, no systematic procedures for examining mediation and moderation have been developed in the case in which the treatment varies within participants. The authors present an analytic approach to these issues using ordinary least squares estimation.

Framing interethnic ideology: effects of multicultural and color-blind perspectives on judgments of groups and individuals

In 3 experiments, White American college students received a message advocating either a color-blind or a multicultural ideological approach to improving interethnic relations and then made judgments about various ethnic groups and individuals. Relative to a color-blind perspective, the multicultural perspective led to stronger stereotypes, greater accuracy in these stereotypes, and greater use of category information in judgments of individuals. This increase in between-category differentiation occurred both for attributes that favored the in-group and for attributes that favored the out-group and was also paired in some cases with greater overall positivity toward the out-group. The findings lead us to question the implicit assumption driving the majority of social psychological efforts at prejudice reduction: that the categorization process leads to prejudice, and that the relevance of social categories must therefore be de-emphasized.