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Diversity is a defining characteristic of modern society, yet there remains considerable debate over the benefits that it brings. The authors argue that positive psychological and behavioral outcomes will be observed only when social and cultural diversity is experienced in a way that challenges stereotypical expectations and that when this precondition is met, the experience has cognitive consequences that resonate across multiple domains. A model, rooted in social categorization theory and research, outlines the preconditions and processes through which people cognitively adapt to the experience of social and cultural diversity and the resulting cross-domain benefits that this brings. Evidence is drawn from a range of literatures to support this model, including work on biculturalism, minority influence, cognitive development, stereotype threat, work group productivity, creativity, and political ideology. The authors bring together a range of differing diversity experiences and explicitly draw parallels between programs of research that have focused on both perceiving others who are multicultural and being multicultural oneself. The findings from this integrative review suggest that experiencing diversity that challenges expectations may not only encourage greater tolerance but also have benefits beyond intergroup relations to varied aspects of psychological functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments explored the differential information processing that occurs when perceivers encounter multiple categorizable individuals. Participants were required to recall specific information from previously encountered bogus newspaper stories. Across two experiments it emerged that participants differentially recalled target attributes as a function of positive versus negative story context and multiple dimensions of group membership. Specifically, different dimensions of categorization were dominant for positive and negative evaluative domains. These findings provide an important qualification to the positive–negative asymmetry effect in intergroup discrimination when multiple dimensions of categorization are available. In addition, comparison of the observed effects in different cultural settings suggests the need to consider contextual influences when considering intergroup phenomena with real social group memberships. Finally, in line with previous work, a dissociation was observed between explicit and implicit measures of intergroup bias. The findings are considered within the wider context of work into social categorization and intergroup relations.. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the effects of crossed categorization on intergroup prejudices. Role of category differentiation in the perception of crossed-category structures; Basic conditions wherein evaluative discriminations occur; Ways of alleviating intergroup bias.

This study reports a conceptual replication and extension of Deschamps' (1977) experiment concerning the effects of subcategorization on an existing dimension of physical classification. Using a computerized procedure and a more sophisticated statistical analysis we found support for category differentiation processes at the intra- as well as inter-class level of differentiation. In contrast to the original findings, we also found evidence for decategorization, a previously neglected potential outcome of multiple categorization procedures. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous meta-analytic reviews of the literature on crossed categorization have uncovered a number of important findings; however, several questions remain unanswered and may best be tackled using a more traditional narrative approach. This review of the literature on crossed categorization divides studies into those that are relevant to (a) which pattern of evaluation prevails in multiple categorization contexts, (b) what processes best account for the effects, and (c) whether crossed categorization can reduce intergroup bias relative to simple categorization. Re-examination of existing theory and available evidence suggests a number of important new issues to consider in studying multiple categorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four studies examined gender differences in self-construals and the role of social comparison in generating these differences. Consistent with previous research, Study 1 (N = 461) showed that women define themselves as higher in relational interdependence than men, and men define themselves as higher in independence/agency than women. Study 2 (N = 301) showed that within-gender social comparison decreases gender differences in self-construals relative to a control condition, whereas between-genders comparison increases gender differences on both relational interdependence and independence/agency. Studies 3 (N = 169) and 4 (N = 278) confirmed these findings and showed that changing self-construal changes gender differences in social dominance orientation. Across the 4 studies, strong evidence for the role of in-group stereotyping as mediator of the effect of gender on self-construal was observed on the relational dimension but not on the agentic dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]