Population Stereotypes: An Attempt to Measure and Define

Abstract

Population stereotypes relating to the indication of changes in magnitude (greater/less, higher/ lower, etc.), direction of rotation (switches, faucets, doors, etc.), location (left/right, up/down, etc.), and color were tested by means of several pictorial and verbal examples of each variety of stereotype. 127 university students of both sexes and a wide range of disciplines were asked to respond dichotomously (i.e., Is this switch ON or OFF?) to 21 pictorial examples of commonly experienced situations, and to indicate their color associations to 12 concepts such as HOT, FAR, GO, etc. Results indicated that of the 21 possible non-color stereotypes presented, 18 yielded group choices favoring one of the two alternatives at a level significant beyond a 1% probability. The range of choices for the significant examples was from 66% to a high of 93% for a vertical moving pointer display. In terms of colors, two (RED and GREEN) yielded virtually perfect associations to the STOP and GO concepts, but were also ambiguously associated with several other concepts. The most numerous associations were predictably made to the three primary colors.