Abstract

The purposes of this study were (l)to show whether the implicit activation of counter-stereotypes may enhance relative favorableness of impressions for stereotype-inconsistent persons, and (2)to prove the existence of implicit cognition by showing that subjects were unaware of the process through which they were systematically influenced by the priming behaviors in forming impressions. After constructing priming and impression questionnaires based on pretests, the experimenter made the 112 subjects each believe that the two questionnaires were made for separate experiments. While subjects being unaware of the connected­ ness between the questionnaires, they were first primed by (l)positive or negative (2)stereotype or counter­stereotype behavioral statements, and then asked to form the impressions of (3)one male and one female described as (4)either assertive or shy. Impressions were measured by (l)favorableness, (2)likability in daily lives, (3)perceived aggressiveness(a manipulation check), and (4)social distance. Results showed that positive counter-stereotype and negative stereotype activation increased the favorableness of impressions for stereotype-inconsistent persons, while negative counter-stereotype and positive stereotype priming maintained or strengthened the favorableness of stereotype-consistent persons. There was almost no significant correlations between subjects' explicit memory for prime behaviors and impression scores. Thus, it was concluded that unconscious or implicit processes may systematically influence individuals' judgmental processes such as impression formation. Finally, it was suggested that stereotype research should be theoretically reformulated in terms of automatic acrivation of strong attitudes.