Role objectification : perceiving targets as (only) their roles
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- How do social roles influence attention to and expectations of role occupants? Across nine studies, I demonstrate that occupying professional social roles (e.g., police officer, doctor) reduces attention to individuating information and restricts the traits that are expected and allowed of the role occupants. In a visual recognition paradigm, I show that attending to the social roles that individuals occupy leads to reduced attention to individuating qualities of the occupants within the roles (Chapter 1, Study 1-4). Deindividuation can be instantiated by subtle orientations toward an individual's functional utility in a given context (Study 3). Even a manipulation intended to focus participants on interpersonal qualities appeared to result in role objectification (Study 3). I find that may be due to an attentional prioritization of role information over individuating information about the target (Study 4). Roles also narrow the breadth of traits and qualities that are expected and allowed of occupants. They are expected to possess only role-prescribed traits; perceivers are surprised when they possess even role-peripheral traits (Chapter 2, Study 5). When occupants do possess peripheral traits, they are expected to perform their roles less well (Study 6). However, I do not find that individuals are expected to perform a central role worse when they also occupy additional roles in their free time (Study 7). Despite trait restrictions due to roles, I do not find that people expect individuals to possess fewer total personality traits (i.e., the combination of central and peripheral traits) when an individual occupies a role versus does not (Study 8-9). In total, these findings help to explain how social roles can lead to objectifying perceptions of occupants.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2016 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Malahy, Sean C |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Graduate School of Business. |
| Primary advisor | Lowery, Brian S, 1974- |
| Thesis advisor | Lowery, Brian S, 1974- |
| Thesis advisor | Miller, Dale T |
| Thesis advisor | Monin, Benoît, 1972- |
| Advisor | Miller, Dale T |
| Advisor | Monin, Benoît, 1972- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Sean C. Malahy. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Graduate School of Business. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2016. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2016 by Sean Christopher Malahy
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
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