Could stereotype rebound affect aid advertising campaigns

Abstract

The possibility that stereotype rebound may occur for viewers of aid agency appeals was investigated. Stereotype rebound refers to the ironic finding that active efforts to avoid thinking about people in a stereotypical manner can backfire and subsequently lead to increased stereotypical thinking and prejudiced behaviour. In two experiments, participants were instructed to avoid stereotyped thinking about developing world poor and were later asked to respond to a situation involving the same group—in Experiment 1, participants wrote a ‘day in the life’ story about the target group; in Experiment 2, participants seated themselves in preparation for meeting a member of the outgroup. In neither experiment was the typical stereotype rebound effect observed. In Experiment 1, suppressors' stories were found to be no more stereotypical in content than controls. In Experiment 2, suppressors sat closer to the target than controls. The differences between these results and those of experiments utilizing other stereotyped groups are discussed in terms of differences in stereotype content and attitudes to socially sensitive outgroups. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.