Students were told to write an essay about a tough-looking skinhead. Group A was told not to let their stereotypes about skinheads influence them. Group B was told nothing. Each student was later brought into a room with eight empty chairs. The first chair had a jacket draped over it that supposedly belonged to a skinhead. Group A students sat farther away from the jacket than did Group B students. These events probably happened because:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Group A students were actively trying to suppress their stereotypes about skinheads, which may have caused them to unintentionally activate those stereotypes. This phenomenon is known as stereotype rebound, where an attempt to suppress a stereotype actually causes it to become more prominent. As a result, Group A students may have felt more threatened by the presence of the jacket and sat farther away from it.

Students Were Told to Write an Essay About a Tough-Looking