Effects of causal attributions on stereotype in ingroup favoritism condition: Does stereotype change?

The effects of causal attributions on stereotype was examined in an experiment. Preliminary study showed that student studying in public universities have negative attitude towards IQ of Azad University students as compared with public university students. This stereotype was used as a means to determine the ingroup favoritism condition. In the main experiment, 80 Mohaggeg Ardabili university students (30 male and 50 female) and were assigned to 8 experiment groups, randomly. In experiments conditions, target individual’s positive or negative counter stereotype behavior was attributed to stable internal, unstable internal and situational causes. Control subjects were exposed to no attribution for target individual’s behavior. The following instruments were used: Explicit Scales designed by researcher as well as Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998) were used with some modifications. Consistent with cognitive dissonance theory, results of the experiment showed a change in explicit stereotype when counter stereotype behavior was attributed to stable internal causes, but implicit stereotype was not affected by causal attribution manipulations. Moreover, explicit and implicit levels of stereotype were correlated in experimental conditions, except the stable internal causal attribution condition. Result is that, manipulation for correcting the individual’s explanation style, changes the explicit stereotype whereas the implicit stereotype perseveres.