Us and them: Memory advantages in perceptually ambiguous groups

Nicholas O. Rule*, Nalini Ambady, Reginald B. Adams, C. Neil Macrae

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

79 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ingroup advantages and outgroup deficits in perception and memory are well-established in research on race, gender, and other ostensibly identifiable social categories. The present study extended this research to a social category that is not as perceptually apparent: male sexual orientation. Consistent with hypotheses, an interaction of participant sexual orientation and image sexual orientation revealed an ingroup enhancement and outgroup deficit for memory of faces that participants perceived-both accurately and inaccurately-as belonging to either their ingroup or outgroup in a subsequent task. Additionally, parallel effects were found for the accurate identification of sexual orientation-a finding consistent with previous literature. The present data highlight the importance of social categorization for subsequent memory and suggest that the underlying cognitive machinery responsible for the recognition of groups may be co-opted for other relevant social applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)687-692
Number of pages6
JournalPsychonomic Bulletin and Review
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2007

Keywords

  • sexual orientation
  • False Alarm Rate
  • SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION
  • Social Psychology Bulletin
  • Memory Advantage

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