Cristina Mendonça, André Mata, Mário Boto Ferreira, Hans Alves
{"title":"The social amplification of illusory correlations","authors":"Cristina Mendonça, André Mata, Mário Boto Ferreira, Hans Alves","doi":"10.1002/ejsp.3104","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Illusory correlations are thought to underlie many undesirable judgements and behaviours, such as those that result in out‐group discrimination. In this research, illusory correlations are investigated in a dynamic fashion using the serial reproduction paradigm. Specifically, participants learned about members of certain groups and behaviours that they performed or attributes that they possessed. Afterwards, they were asked to recall that information and pass it on to other participants, such that whatever memory bias they produced was built into the information that was presented to others. Results revealed a weak tendency for the first participants to perceive an illusory correlation between certain groups and certain behaviours or attributes. More importantly, this pattern grew stronger as information was communicated across participants in a communication chain. That is, the illusory correlation became larger as the information passed from one participant to the next. These results show how biases can grow in society, such that what starts out as a very small misperception can acquire large proportions when incorrect information travels through different people.","PeriodicalId":48377,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Social Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Social Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3104","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Illusory correlations are thought to underlie many undesirable judgements and behaviours, such as those that result in out‐group discrimination. In this research, illusory correlations are investigated in a dynamic fashion using the serial reproduction paradigm. Specifically, participants learned about members of certain groups and behaviours that they performed or attributes that they possessed. Afterwards, they were asked to recall that information and pass it on to other participants, such that whatever memory bias they produced was built into the information that was presented to others. Results revealed a weak tendency for the first participants to perceive an illusory correlation between certain groups and certain behaviours or attributes. More importantly, this pattern grew stronger as information was communicated across participants in a communication chain. That is, the illusory correlation became larger as the information passed from one participant to the next. These results show how biases can grow in society, such that what starts out as a very small misperception can acquire large proportions when incorrect information travels through different people.
期刊介绍:
Topics covered include, among others, intergroup relations, group processes, social cognition, attitudes, social influence and persuasion, self and identity, verbal and nonverbal communication, language and thought, affect and emotion, embodied and situated cognition and individual differences of social-psychological relevance. Together with original research articles, the European Journal of Social Psychology"s innovative and inclusive style is reflected in the variety of articles published: Research Article: Original articles that provide a significant contribution to the understanding of social phenomena, up to a maximum of 12,000 words in length.