Professor Fiske's research
addresses how stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination are
encouraged or discouraged by social relationships, such as cooperation,
competition, and power. We begin with the premise that people
easily categorize other people, especially based on race, gender,
and age. Going beyond such categories, to learn about the individual
person, requires motivation. Social relationships supply one
form of motivation to individuate, and our work shows that being
on the same team or depending on another person makes people
go beyond stereotypes. Conversely, people in power are less
motivated to go beyond their stereotypes. In laboratory studies,
we examine how a variety of relationships affect people forming
impressions of others. Society's cultural stereotypes and prejudice
also depend on relationships of power and interdependence. Group
status and competition affect how groups are (dis)liked and
(dis)respected. In surveys, we examine the content of group
stereotypes based on race, gender, age, (dis)ability, income,
and more, finding patterns in the ways that society views various
groups.
In social neuroscience studies, we show how distinct prejudices activate distinct neural networks. |
