Stereotype content model across cultures: Towards universal similarities and some differences

By Amy J. C. Cuddy, Susan T. Fiske, Virginia S. Y. Kwan, Peter Glick, S. Demoulin, J. Leyens, M. Bond, J. Croizet, N. Ellemers, Ed Sleebos and 14 more. British Journal of Social Psychology, 2009

923 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The stereotype content model (SCM) proposes potentially universal principles of societal stereotypes and their relation to social structure. Here, the SCM reveals theoretically grounded, cross-cultural, cross-groups similarities and one difference across 10 non-US nations. Seven European (individualist) and three East Asian (collectivist) nations (N = 1, 028) support three hypothesized cross-cultural similarities: (a) perceived warmth and competence reliably differentiate societal group stereotypes; (b) many out-groups receive ambivalent stereotypes (high on one dimension; low on the other); and (c) high status groups stereotypically are competent, whereas competitive groups stereotypically lack warmth. Data uncover one consequential cross-cultural difference: (d) the more collectivist cultures do not locate reference groups (in-groups and societal prototype groups) in the most positive cluster (high-competence/high-warmth), unlike individualist cultures. This demonstrates out-group derogation without obvious reference-group favouritism. The SCM can serve as a pancultural tool for predicting group stereotypes from structural relations with other groups in society, and comparing across societies.

Subfields: Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cde6563fa8d30da8bc460e3bcee898a3cfd0302e

How researchers see this paper

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

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Microdynamics in diverse teams: A review and integration of the diversity and stereotyping literatures (2017, background): “Assessments of warmth and competence are likely to affect many decisions in organizations, including whom we trust, doubt, defend, attack, hire, or fire (Cuddy et al., 2009).”
The dynamics of warmth and competence judgments, and their outcomes in organizations (2011, background): “The SCM, which has been validated in more than twenty different cultures (Cuddy et al., 2008, 2009; Fiske & Cuddy, 2006), highlights distinct, but coordinated and predictable, patterns of prejudice – with each warmth/competence stereotype combination creating a unique set of emotions (admiration,…”
Negotiating the Gender Divide (2012, background): “The content of prescriptive gender stereotypes is consistent across many different cultures (e.g., Fullagar, Sumer, Sverke, & Slick, 2003; Schein, Mueller, Lituchy, & Liu, 1996) and the basic principles of SCM have been demonstrated to be robust across cultures (Cuddy et al., 2009).”
Reducing women’s lack of fit with leadership positions? Effects of the wording of job advertisements (2015, methodology): “To back up the cover story (collection of data about the applicant’s personality profile) and to distract attention from competence items, the competence items were mixed with 10 filler traits which were related to person orientation or warmth (e.g., helpful, friendly; Cuddy et al., 2009) or other t”
Positive Stereotypes Are Pervasive and Powerful (2015, background): “This stereotype content model is well-supported across various social target groups and among many different samples of perceivers (Clausell & Fiske, 2005; Cuddy et al., 2009; Walzer & Czopp, 2011).”
The Risks of Ageism Model: How Ageism and Negative Attitudes toward Age Can Be a Barrier to Active Aging (2017, background): “this mixed stereotype content of older adults is pervasive across cultures (Abrams et al., 2011; Cuddy et al., 2009; North & Fiske, 2015; Vauclair et al., 2016).”
Social neuroscience evidence for dehumanised perception (2009, background): “SCM data have come from US representative surveys (Cuddy et al., 2007a), US college samples (Fiske et al., 2002), as well as Asian and European samples (Cuddy et al., 2009).”
Stereotype Content: Warmth and Competence Endure (2018, neutral): “As a final example of cultural comparison, Asian samples show out-groups similar to the Western ones: Groups low in both competence and warmth include the homeless and immigrants, envied groups include rich and professionals, and pitied groups include older and disabled people (Cuddy et al., 2009).”
Geek or Chic? Emerging Stereotypes of Online Gamers (2012, background): “To this end, we asked participants (both gamers and nongamers) to indicate what most other people think online gamers are like (see Cuddy et al., 2009, for a similar approach).”