Implicit and Explicit Stereotyping of Adolescents

• NCJ Number: 219489
• Journal: Social Justice Research Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2007 Pages: 140-160
• Author(s): Elisheva F. Gross; Curtis D. Hardin
• Date Published: June 2007
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article presents results from two experiments that tested whether adolescent stereotypes, such as rebellious and risky, were explicitly and implicitly used in perceptions of adolescents.

Abstract

Results from both experiments indicated that individuals used both explicit and implicit adolescent stereotypes in their social judgments of adolescents. The study regarding the explicit use of stereotyping to judge adolescents indicated that the explicit stereotyping was used to predict the rebelliousness of a 17-year-old but not a 71-year-old. Evidence of implicit adolescent stereotyping was indicated by the words associated with the 17-year-old versus the words associated with the 71-year-old. The first experiment tested the assumption that common stereotypes of adolescents are implicitly and explicitly used to make judgments of adolescents. Participants were 106 undergraduate students in a social psychology course who read and evaluated a 12-sentence paragraph describing an incident in which an individual was stopped by a police officer for disregarding a stop sign. The individual was identified in the first sentence as either a 17-year-old or a 71-year-old. Participants then rated the individual on eight traits: adventurous, daring, rebellious, disobedient, relaxed, shy, vulgar, and squeamish. Participants also completed the Storm and Stress Beliefs Scale to test their explicit adolescent stereotyping and the Implicit Association Task to test their implicit adolescent stereotyping. In the second experiment, 37 undergraduate participants evaluated the behavior of either a 17-year-old or a 71-year-old who behaved in an identically rebellious manner after subliminal exposure to words either related or unrelated to adolescent stereotyping. Data were analyzed using a variety of statistical techniques including ANOVA and MANOVA analyses. Tables, figure, footnotes, appendixes