https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868317723532
Personality and Social Psychology Review
2018, Vol. 22(3) 199–227
© 2017 by the Society for Personality
and Social Psychology, Inc.
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DOI: 10.1177/1088868317723532
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Article
Psychological interest in stereotype measurement has spanned
nearly a century. In an early study, participants more accu-
rately matched occupations and pictures when the appearance
of an individual in a picture was stereotypical of their occupa-
tion, than when their appearance was not stereotypical of their
occupation (Rice, 1926). Since then, the measurement of ste-
reotypes has diversified. Currently, stereotype measures fall
into two major categories—explicit and implicit (Fazio &
Olson, 2003). Explicit measures directly ask participants for
information regarding the target construct with little effort to
be indirect or covert. Generally, explicit stereotype measures
ask participants to report their level of agreement toward
items of a stereotypic nature. For example, a study of occupa-
tional gender stereotypes asked participants to rate their
agreements with statements such as “Men are better suited to
certain occupations” (Yu, Yang, Lu, & Yan, 2014, p. 148).
Although explicit measures have been very useful, they have
limitations. Because participants are aware of what these
measures aim to capture, participants have the opportunity to
change their responses to portray themselves more favorably
(Orne, 1962). In addition, explicit measures may fail to prop-
erly capture some of the more subtle and automatic forms of
social cognition (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). These limita-
tions have led researchers to develop and use implicit mea-
sures to complement explicit measures.
Implicit measures attempt to measure target constructs
indirectly by engaging participants in a task where the target
construct affects responses in a relatively “automatic” way
(De, Houwer, Teige-Mocigemba, Spruyt, & Moors, 2009).
Many implicit measures were developed specifically to
explore mental associations between concepts that might be
quickly activated and influence subsequent thoughts and
behaviors (for review, see Gawronski, 2009). These implicit
measures generally look at reaction times and/or errors that
occur when people make quick judgments about stimuli that
are presented in different contexts. Researchers vary the
context in which stimuli are presented to see if context acti-
vation influences the speed or accuracy of participants’
responses to stimuli.
Implicit measures became important and popular because
they provided a basis for developing and exploring dual-
process theories about stereotypes and other constructs, espe-
cially when used in conjunction with explicit measures. These
theories outline conditions when behavior is driven by more
“automatic” processes versus more controlled, deliberate pro-
cesses and are now widely used to explain how stereotypes
723532PSR XX X 10.1177/1088868317723532Personality and Social Psychology ReviewKidder et al.
research-article 2017
1
University of Texas at El Paso, USA
2
Columbus State University GA, USA
Corresponding Author:
Ciara K. Kidder, Department of Psychology, Marian University, 45 S.
National Avenue, Fond du Lac, WI, 54935, USA.
Email: ckkidder08@marianuniversity.edu
Sequential Stereotype Priming:
A Meta-Analysis
Ciara K. Kidder
1
, Katherine R. White
2
, Michelle R. Hinojos
1
,
Mayra Sandoval
1
, and Stephen L. Crites Jr.
1
Abstract
Psychological interest in stereotype measurement has spanned nearly a century, with researchers adopting implicit measures
in the 1980s to complement explicit measures. One of the most frequently used implicit measures of stereotypes is the
sequential priming paradigm. The current meta-analysis examines stereotype priming, focusing specifically on this paradigm.
To contribute to ongoing discussions regarding methodological rigor in social psychology, one primary goal was to identify
methodological moderators of the stereotype priming effect—whether priming is due to a relation between the prime and
target stimuli, the prime and target response, participant task, stereotype dimension, stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), and
stimuli type. Data from 39 studies yielded 87 individual effect sizes from 5,497 participants. Analyses revealed that stereotype
priming is significantly moderated by the presence of prime–response relations, participant task, stereotype dimension, target
stimulus type, SOA, and prime repetition. These results carry both practical and theoretical implications for future research
on stereotype priming.
Keywords
prejudice/stereotyping, priming, automatic/implicit processes, meta-analysis