Examining stereotypes in a dynamic social order: the stereotype content model in India

ABSTRACT

Stereotypes are tools of social perception that attribute a superficial uniformity to individuals within a social group, providing an instrument to assess individuals and groups. The stereotype content model (SCM) provides a framework for understanding these dynamics. SCM explores how groups are stereotyped on competence and warmth. This research utilizes the SCM to study India, a heterogenous society with diverse social groups. The purpose of this paper is to study caste stereotypes using SCM within India while also comparing two distinct regions of the country – the north and the south. This study is unique because (a) earlier studies have not explored stereotyping while recognizing the regional variations “within” India and (b) it applies SCM to caste. We also include how caste perceptions are further defined for groups that fall under the affirmative action program. Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, we recruited subjects who responded to questions that assessed stereotypes of different social groups. The results indicate the presence of more ambivalent stereotypes and higher belief in karmic ideology in the four southern states compared to the northern states. Possible explanations discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Stereotypes
• stereotype content model
• caste
• prejudice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/2PKNW.

Open scholarship

 

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/2PKNW.

Notes

1. The four southern states being Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

2. While SCs is useful as a general reference to the caste group, the breakdown into SCs – with or without AA – is meaningful to focus on the impact of AA and whether the latter two are somehow perceived differently than the generic SCs category.

3. Groups included for the study were – daily wagers, fair-skinned people, scheduled castes, forward castes, women, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, North Indians, South Indians, Brahmins, SCs/STs in private employment (no reservation), unemployed, SCs/STs in government employment (with reservation), uneducated, doctors, middle class, backward castes (OBCs), men, Christians, Scheduled Tribes, poor people, dark-skinned people, housewives, English speakers, elderly, young people, rich people, politicians, government employees, private sector employees, lawyers. In terms of the caste structure, all the castes found representation in the groups adopted for the study. The “forward castes”(FC) is a catch-all term used to reference the cluster of myriad subcastes that constitute the top three caste rungs – brahmins, kshatriyas and vaishyas. The sudras are represented in the OBCs. The untouchables are included in the SCs/STs.

4. We thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing out that a prompt asking for a general societal perspective may differ from one asking for a regional societal perspective.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Ambika Prasad

Professor Ambika Prasad, a Posse Mentor, is Lecturer in Management at the A. B. Freeman School of Business and Adjunct Professor with the Tulane Honors Program. Professor Prasad draws on her academic background in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and her professional experience in the Indian Revenue Service and at a consulting firm in Illinois. Her research focuses on the influence of diversity and stereotyping on performance evaluations, as well as on how virtual teams come together across distances to collaborate. She is interested in the need for management to understand individuals with diverse backgrounds and support their teams. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambika-prasad-1450097/.

Caitlin E. Smith Sockbeson

Caitlin E. Smith Sockbeson graduated from Tulane University with her Ph.D. in Management. She is an Assistant Professor of Management and the DBA Director in the Davis College of Business and Technology at Jacksonville University. Her research interests include feedback and performance management and gender and diversity at work. https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-smith-sockbeson-4b53891b/, Twitter: @drsockbeson.

Laurie T. O’Brien

Laurie O’Brien is an experimental social psychologist and she is interested in issues related to prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, and stigma. Two questions central to her research are: (1) How do people from high status and low status groups make judgments about what constitutes prejudice? (2) What are the consequences of perceiving prejudice and discrimination for people from both high and low status groups? Laurie is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Tulane University. https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-o-brien-bb80a477/.