Ph.D., Purdue University, 1995 Assistant Professor Member, Social/Cognitive Psychology Program stewart@gsu.edu 404-413-6300 712 Urban Life

My primary research interests lie in two main areas: stereotyping and prejudice and the effect of factors such as status and attitudes on person memory. My research in both areas is generally approached from a social cognitive perspective. As an example of the first research interest, suppose you learn that an individual “skips class regularly” and you judge this person to be lazy. Under what conditions will your judgment on this occasion make it more likely that similar behaviors performed in the future by the same or a different person will be judged as lazy? How might judgment processes differ for individuals from different ethnic groups observed performing the same behavior? How might judgment processes differ for perceivers who are high versus low in prejudice? My colleagues and I have investigated these questions using a variety of paradigms. We recently introduced a new measure designed to examine whether stereotyping occurs spontaneously for all perceivers, regardless of their level of prejudice (Stewart, Weeks, & Lupfer, 2003).

I have become increasingly interested in exploring factors that might contribute to stereotype change and prejudice reduction and recently had the opportunity to conduct a program evaluation of a well-known, controversial technique for reducing stereotyping and prejudice: Jane Elliott’s “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” diversity training exercise (Stewart, LaDuke, Bracht, Sweet, & Gamarel, 2003). I am also developing my own prejudice reduction training technique -- attribution training -- designed to encourage individuals to consider potential situational causes of people’s actions when observing actions that might otherwise automatically be labeled as reflecting stereotypic traits. Additionally, my research focuses on identifying situations in which guilt and anger about one’s stereotypic thoughts can be channeled into productive prejudice reduction versus leading to an increase in prejudice (e.g., Dovidio, ten Vergert, Stewart, Gaertner, Johnson, Esses, Riek, & Pearson, in press).

The second of my primary research areas concerns the examination of factors that influence memory for information about members of various social groups, particularly gender and ethnic groups. Initial research in this area revealed that outgroup homogeneity (the tendency to perceive members of outgroups as more homogeneous than ingroup members) tends to be a relatively strong effect for male participants, who confused previously described female targets with one another on the memory test more so than they confused the male targets with one another. In contrast, female participants exhibited a tendency toward homogenization of their own gender group, making more errors for female targets than for male targets. The resulting tendency for participants of both sexes to homogenize female targets was interpreted as a response to men's perceived greater status and power in U. S. society. Similarly, male targets associated with higher status occupations were individuated to a greater degree than were male targets with lower status occupation cues. However, female targets were individuated equally regardless of their occupational status cues. The minimal impact of occupation cues on memory for female targets was attributed to the perceived overall lower status of the superordinate female gender group (Stewart & Vassar, 2000).

Having established that men’s perceived higher societal status can prompt both men and women to individuate men more than women, my colleagues and I next attempted to identify a group of individuals who would individuate women and men equally or women more than men despite men’s higher perceived status. As predicted, both male and female participants with a traditional attitude toward women’s roles showed the familiar status-driven pattern of better memory for male targets, whereas male and female participants with more progressive views of women tended to remember the female targets better than the male targets (Stewart, Vassar, Sanchez, & David, 2000). My colleagues and I are presently studying the processes mediating the individual differences in memory for men and women observed in previous studies.

Representative Publications

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Smith, V. J., Stewart, T. L., Myers, A. C., & Latu, I. M.  (in press). Implicit coping responses to racism predict African Americans’ level of psychological distress.  Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Stewart, T. L., Myers, A. C., & Culley, M. R. (accepted pending revisions).  Enhanced learning and retention through “writing to learn” in the psychology classroom.  Teaching of Psychology.

Stewart, T. L., Jaspers, K. E., Estes, S. B., & Latu, I. M.  (2007). Interethnic differences (or   similarities?) in the relative individuation of women and men.  Sex Roles, 57, 21-29.

Stewart, T. L., Harris, K. R., van Knippenberg, A., Hermsen, B. J., Joly, J., & Lippmann, M. (2006).  The effect of attitude toward women on the relative individuation of women and men is mediated by perceived gender subgroups.  British Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 759-775.

Dovidio, J. F., Gaertner, S. L., Stewart, T. L., Esses, V. M., ten Vergert, M., & Hodson, G.  (2004).  From intervention to outcome:  Processes in the reduction of bias.  In W. G.  Stephan & W. P. Vogt (Eds.), Education programs for improving intergroup relations:  Theory, research, and practice (pp. 243-265).  New York: Teachers College Press.
           
Dovidio, J. F., ten Vergert, M., Stewart, T. L., Gaertner, S. L., Johnson, J. D., Esses, V. M., Riek, B. M., & Pearson, A. R.  (2004).  Perspective and prejudice:  Antecedents and mediating mechanisms.  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1537-1549.

Stewart, T. L., van Knippenberg, A., Joly, J., Lippmann, M., Hermsen, B. J., & Harris, K. R. (2004). The influence of attitudes toward women on the relative individuation of women and men in the Netherlands.  Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 240-245.

Stewart, T. L., Berkvens, M., Engels, W. A. E. W., & Pass, J. A.  (2003).  Status and   likability:  Can the “mindful” woman have it all?  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 2040-2059.

Stewart, T. L., La Duke, J. R., Bracht, C., Sweet, B. A. M., & Gamarel, K. E.  (2003). Do the "eyes" have it?  A program evaluation of Jane Elliott's "blue eyes/brown eyes" diversity training exercise.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 1898-1921.

Stewart, T. L., Weeks, M., & Lupfer, M. B.  (2003).  Spontaneous stereotyping:  A matter of prejudice?  Social Cognition, 21, 263-298.

Stewart, T. L. (2001).  The “Small Talk” Activity:  An interactive, applied learning technique. Teaching of Psychology, 28, 52-55. 

Takiff, H. A., Sanchez, D. T., & Stewart, T. L.  (2001).  What’s in a name?  The status implications of students’ terms of address for male and female professors.  Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25, 134-144.

Stewart, T. L., & Vassar, P. M.  (2000).  The effect of occupational status cues on memory for male and female targets.  Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24, 161-169.

Stewart, T. L., Vassar, P. M., Sanchez, D. T., & David, S. E.  (2000).  Attitude toward women’s societal roles moderates the effect of gender cues on target individuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 143-157.

Stewart, T. L., Doan, K. A., Gingrich, B. E., & Smith, E. R.  (1998).  The actor as context for social judgments:  Effects of prior impressions and stereotypes.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1132-1154.

Lorenzi-Cioldi, F., Eagly, A. H., & Stewart, T. L.  (1995).  Homogeneity of gender groups in memory.  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 193-217.

Smith, E. R., Stewart, T. L., & Buttram, R. T.  (1992).  Inferring a trait from a behavior has long-term, highly-specific effects.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 753-759.

Policy Briefs

Stewart, T. L., & Stevenson, G. D.  (2003).  Poor health threatens the academic achievement of Mississippi’s children. Starkville, MS:  Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University, Mississippi Health Policy Research Center.

Contributions to Instructors’ Manuals

Stewart, T. L.  (2000).  Perceptions of feminists as admirable but unfriendly:  An activity to open discussion of research on cross-dimension ambivalence toward feminists.  In Instructors manual and test bank to accompany Engendering Psychology (pp. 4-6). Boston:  Allyn & Bacon.