Determinants of perceived group heterogeneity
The determinants of perceived variability among members of a group were examined. Based on the assumption that one's knowledge about a group involves two components, (a) group-level knowledge and (b) exemplar knowledge, a model of perceived group variability was developed. The model postulated three hypotheses: (1) The more group-level knowledge one has, the more homogeneous the group is perceived to be; (2) The group is perceived as more variable when exemplar knowledge is relatively more salient than group-level knowledge; (3) The effects of the relative salience of exemplars will be more pronounced when greater knowledge is available about the group. In contrast, past studies suggested that judgments of variability would be determined by (4) sum knowledge about the group, and by (5) the perceiver's group membership.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign