Intentional Forgetting of Stereotypes

Sammanfattning: This study investigates the possibility of intentional forgetting of congruent and incongruent stereotypes belonging to either the in-group or an out-group. Previous research has shown that we perceive people differently depending on whether they belong to our in-group or an out-group. Differences have also been shown in how we process information that is congruent or incongruent to a stereotype. This was studied in a directed forgetting test where participants were asked to learn a list of both stereotype-congruent and –incongruent features belonging to persons from both the in- and out-group. The were then asked to forget the first list and learn a new which was identical to the first list but with new features. The main hypothesis that there will be a difference in recall of stereotype-congruent vs. stereotype-incongruent features depending on if they belong to the in- or out-group and if they were in the first or second list. The prediction was also made that the effect of directed forgetting would be mediated by how strong the participants’ stereotypic thinking was and their ability to recruit inhibitory control, as an effect of working memory capacity. This was tested by IAT and OSPAN. The hypothesis was partly confirmed and the results showed a significant difference in recall where participants recalled more stereotype-related information concerning the out-group but were also able to intentionally forget them. For the in-group, participants recalled more of the incongruent features but there was no significant difference between the first and second list. Implicit attitudes and working memory capacity did not influence the pattern of results. The present study reveals a difference in how we perceive and are able to forget congruent and incongruent stereotypic information about the in- and out-group.