Moderation of the familiarity-stereotyping effect: The role of stereotype fit

Research has shown that familiarity induced by prior exposure can decrease analytic processing and increase reliance on heuristic processing, including the use of stereotypes (the familiarity-stereotyping effect). We hypothesize that the familiarity-stereotyping effect will occur only when a stereotype provides information that fits with the judgmental context. When a stereotype and other encountered information are inconsistent with one another, heuristic processing will be disrupted and the familiarity-stereotyping effect will be eliminated. To test this hypothesis, we replicated two experiments from Garcia-Marques and Mackie (2007), manipulating the level of familiarity of information and the stereotypic fit of a suspect's occupation to a crime context. Prior exposure to both categorical information (Study 1) and criminal evidence (Study 2) increased stereotyping and decreased analytic consideration of the evidence, but only when the suspect's occupation was stereotypically consistent with the crime.