Scholarly record

THE ERRONEOUS NEGATIVE PERCEPTION OF MINORITY GROUPS: TESTING FOR ILLUSORY CORRELATION AMONG ROMANIAN STUDENTS

Tomsa, R., Dudau, D. P.

Abstract

The present study sought to replicate on a sample of 194 Romanian first-year students, the results obtained in the mid-1970s and late 1980s by David Hamilton and Robert Gifford, regarding the role of cognitive factors in stereotyping, namely the people's propensity to build negative impressions of minorities based on false associations (the illusory correlation effect). The method implied presenting the participants with a number of statements about each member of two imaginary groups (Group A - the majority group, and Group B – the minority one). The statements referred to either a desirable, or an undesirable behavior. The participants were asked to rate each group with respect to 8 attributes (4 positive; 4 negative), using a 7-point Likert scale, but the ratio between the negative and the positive statements about the members of the two groups was equal between the majority group and the minority one. Our findings highlighted a possible illusory correlation bias in perceiving Group A and Group B, considering that the statistical processing revealed that the minority group was rated more negatively than the majority one, even though apparently there were no rational reasons to happen so, t(193) = 10.39, p extless .01. Thus, this study was consistent with the classical work that has placed the illusory correlation on the field of stereotyping, and it could emphasize the occurrence of some social perception errors that disadvantage the minorities for no reasonable basis. Therefore, despite its simplicity and shortcomings, the present paper could mark a basic step to precede a more complex and rigorous approach to this phenomenon, an approach that could ultimately propose methods to prevent, decrease or manipulate such social biases, in order to gain benefits for the community.

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