Shifting Standards and Contextual Variation in Stereotyping

This chapter provides an overview of some 10 years of research on the “Shifting Standards Model” (Biernat, Manis, & Nelson, 1991). This model suggests that stereotypes lead perceivers to evaluate individual group members relative to within-category standards. One result of this process is that subjective evaluations (e.g., judgments on semantic-differential scales) may “mask” the operation of stereotypes. For example, a man and a woman may both be described as equally “competent”, even when more “objective” evaluations reveal substantial stereotyping effects (e.g., the man is assumed to score higher on standardized tests of competency). This review focuses on the role of context in moderating the tendency to shift judgment standards, and provides a critical comparison of the shifting standards model with two other theories emphasizing contextual variation in stereotyping, Social Identity/Self-Categorization Theory (Tajfel, 1972; Turner, 1982; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), and the Parallel Constraint Satisfaction Model of impression formation (Kunda & Thagard, 1996).