Group salience and stereotyping

Salience of sexual identity was varied in intergroup interaction for 75 female and 77 male college students. Participants rated attraction for and made attributions of sex-linked personality traits to men and women presented on slides. Under conditions of high as compared to low group salience, own group members were rated as more attractive than other group members, men made greater use of the male competence stereotype and women made greater use of the female warmth stereotype. These findings were interpreted as consistent with a social comparison interpretation of intergroup interaction.