JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 23, 399-427 (1987) Category-Based and Attribute-Based Reactions to Others: Some Informational Conditions of Stereotyping and lndividuating Processes SUSAN T. FISKE University of Mas.sarhusetts at Amherst STEVEN L. NEUBERG Carnegie-Mellon fJnh,ersity ANN E. BEATTIE Department of Marketing. Columbia Utk~ersity AND SANDRA J. MILBERG Department of Marketing, UnhBersity of Pittsbuph Received April 13, 1986 This paper suggests that people can form impressions in a variety of ways that range from primarily category-based processes to primarily attribute-based processes, and that the process partially depends on the configuration of available information. Easily categorized configurations are hypothesized to elicit relatively category-based processes, while not easily categorized configurations are hy- pothesized to elicit relatively attribute-based processes. In Experiment I, subjects first rated the likability of job-category labels and relevant trait attributes, in isolation from each other. At a later session, stimulus people were depicted by category labels (occupations) and relevant attributes (traits) in varying combinations. This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grants BNS 8406913 and BNS 8596028. The authors thank Margaret Clark, Sheldon Cohen, Ralph Erber, Eric Johnson, Mark Pavelchak, Robert Siegler, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts. We also thank Chris Allman, Holly Von Hendy, and Felicia Pratt0 for help with pretesting, coding, and analyses. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to the first author. at the Department of Psychology: Tobin Hall, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. MA 01003. 399 0022-1031/87 $3.00 Copyright 0 1987 by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction m any form reserved.