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Bergsieker and Russell were supported by National Science Foundation Fellowships and by the Joint Degree Program in Psychology and Social Policy. The Bergsieker et al. research and the Williams senior thesis were supported by research funds from Princeton University. The Russell and Fiske research was supported by a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation.
The election of President Barack Obama reflects and constructs a new era in racial stereotypes. The good news is that images of Black Americans have quantifiably improved over eighty years of measurement. So-called "Negroes" in 1932, the first year of systematic stereotype measurement, were among the least respected groups in U.S. society but now, by the same measures, fare better than generic Americans and equal other ethnic and national groups (Bergsieker et al., under review). Several empirical trends support this salutary state of stereotypes, but each strikes a cautionary note. A running theme will show that social groups and their exemplars, such as Obama, need to be viewed as being simultaneously warm and competent in order to succeed in society (Fiske et al., 2007) and in elections (Abelson et al., 1982). Three processes--stereotyping by omission, subtyping by class, and habituating by mere exposure--all framed in the Warmth x Competence model, help explain the Obama phenomena.
STEREOTYPE CONTENT MODEL: IT'S THE WARMTH AND COMPETENCE, STUPID
To understand all these trends, two fundamental dimensions matter: (dis)liking and (dis)respecting (Fiske et al., 2007). Together, these two dimensions of social cognition, respectively warmth-morality and competence-agency, account for as much as 90% of the variance in impressions of individuals and groups (Abele and Wojciszke, 2008; Wojciszke 2005). The dimensions make intuitive, theoretical, and empirical sense. When people first encounter a stranger, they need to know immediately whether the other intends good or ill, hence the sentry's cry: "Halt! Who goes there, friend or foe?" If the other has good intentions, then the other is warm, friendly, and trustworthy. If the other does not have good intentions, then one must be vigilant. Second, people need to know whether the other can enact those intentions: "What can you do [to me or for me]?"
These two arguably adaptive dimensions result in a two-dimensional space, described as the Stereotype Content Model (SCM; see...