Automatic Stereotype Activation Is Context Dependent

Processes involving an automatic activation of stereotypes in different contexts were investigated using a priming paradigm with the lexical decision task. The names of social categories were combined with background pictures of specific situations to yield a compound prime comprising category and context information. Significant category priming effects for stereotypic attributes (e. g., Bavarians - beer) emerged for fitting contexts (e. g., in combination with a picture of a marquee) but not for nonfitting contexts (e. g., in combination with a picture of a shop). Findings indicate that social stereotypes are organized as specific mental schemas that are triggered by a combination of category and context information.