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Base rates, stereotypes, and judgmental accuracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

David C. Funder
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0426. funder@ucrac1.ucr.edu

Abstract

The base rate literature has an opposite twin in the social psychological literature on stereotypes, which concludes that people use their preexisting beliefs about probabilistic category attributes too much, rather than not enough. This ironic discrepancy arises because beliefs about category attributes enhance accuracy when the beliefs are accurate and diminish accuracy when they are not. To determine the accuracy of base rate/stereotype beliefs requires research that addresses specific content.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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