Time for some real science up in here.
The link goes to the free PDF of a study that shows the negative effects of positive stereotypes.
I like to talk about psychology and behavior a lot on this blog, and it can be very valuable if you’re a designer who wants to influence your users (the psychology, not necessarily my talking about it).
Two parts of user psychology that are particularly interesting to me are: how to design incentives, and how information can be more intuitive, especially when it is incorrect.
Incentives are ways to motivate behaviour, either by rewarding good behaviour or punishing bad behaviour.
When we believe information that is incorrect, that is often the result of a cognitive bias.
The linked study hits both of those things in a really interesting way.
In a nutshell: although people often think negative stereotypes are bad, or racism, or discrimination… we don’t seem to have a problem with positive stereotypes.
For example, if I said “UX designers have very strong empathy for others.” — that might be very believable to us, as UX designers.
In the study, people feel roughly the same way about the stereotype that “black people are superior athletes”, for example.
But the interesting thing is: if you believe the positive stereotype, you are more likely to believe in stereotypes in general. Including the negative ones. And it strengthens the idea that some groups are better than others by nature.
If I had said “UI designers have very weak empathy for others” every UI designer that read it would disagree and be insulted. But it’s exactly the same thing!
One explanation for why we do this is that positive stereotypes come with an incentive to believe. Even the people being stereotyped probably like the idea that they are better than others. And everybody else has an excuse for why they can’t dunk like Michael Jordan.
The lesson here is: you are more likely to believe or support something that is incorrect, if it can be phrased in a way that makes you look good or feel good. But the exact same thing, phrased in a way that makes you look bad or feel bad, might not seem believable.
2087
origamiaround
titsay
tangentwithtanner
dailybridgerton
turnnoffyourmind
andulkaphoto
