Stereotype Content: Warmth and Competence Endure

By Susan T. Fiske. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2018

683 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Two dimensions persist in social cognition when people are making sense of individuals or groups. The stereotype content model (SCM) terms these two basic dimensions perceived warmth (trustworthiness, friendliness) and competence (capability, assertiveness). Measured reliably and validly, these Big Two dimensions converge across survey, cultural, laboratory, and biobehavioral approaches. Generality across place, levels, and time further support the framework. Similar dimensions have emerged repeatedly over the history of psychology and in current theories. The SCM proposes and tests a comprehensive causal theory: Perceived social structure (cooperation, status) predicts stereotypes (warmth, competence), which in turn predict emotional prejudices (pride, pity, contempt, envy), and finally, the emotions predict discrimination (active and passive help and harm). The SCM uncovers systematic content and dynamics of stereotypes, which has practical implications.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aeb567741fa459bd3f07420b68114f396bdc2bd1

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. Marco Brambilla
2. Simona Sacchi
3. Patrice Rusconi
4. Geoffrey P. Goodwin
5. Xuechunzi Bai
6. Gandalf Nicolas
7. Susan T. Fiske
8. David C. Geary

In Social Psychology

1. Marco Brambilla
2. Geoffrey P. Goodwin
3. Simona Sacchi
4. Xuechunzi Bai
5. Gandalf Nicolas
6. Patrice Rusconi
7. Susan T. Fiske
8. N. Ellemers

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Marco Brambilla
2. Geoffrey P. Goodwin
3. Simona Sacchi
4. Gandalf Nicolas
5. Xuechunzi Bai
6. Patrice Rusconi
7. Susan T. Fiske
8. N. Ellemers

Citations in the corpus

• Comprehensive stereotype content dictionaries using a semi‐automated method (2020, background): “A large body of research has corroborated that evaluations along these dimensions occur cross-culturally (Fiske, 2018).”
• The primacy of morality in impression development: Theory, research, and future directions (2021, background): “The studies in this area have also argued that perceivers prioritize warmth information when evaluating ingroup and outgroup members, because warmth information is functional in revealing others’ intentions (Fiske, 2018).”