Envy Up and Contempt Down: Intergroup Experience in the Stereotype Content Model

With the increasing intercultural contacts of everyday life, people must make sense of each other both as individuals and as groups. How do people categorize individuals and groups that differ from themselves? According to Susan Fiske’s Stereotype Content Model (SCM), members of other groups are identified along two universal axes – perceived warmth and perceived competence – that differ in the kinds of prejudice they evoke. While members of one’s own group are considered both warm and competent, contemptible groups are seen as neither warm nor competent and envied groups are seen as competent but not warm. With an award from the Foundation, Fiske will carry out a series of laboratory and neuro-imaging studies to examine inter-group envy and contempt.  Eight experimental paradigms will test moderators of contempt toward lower-status groups and envy towards high-status groups. For example, one study will examine how vignettes highlighting structural or individual causes of poverty elicit contempt versus pity. Another experiment will look at how participants engaging in a simulated game interact with stereotypically competitive or high-status players that they envy. Fiske will look at how certain racial groups prompt contempt, while other groups prompt envy.

Subsequent neuro-imaging studies will track the neural activity elicited by each experimental paradigm. In previous research, Fiske has found distinct brain activity associated with prejudice. Fiske now plans to test whether SCM quadrants have unique neural signatures. Having previously conducted brain scanning of the “contempt down” groups, Fiske will next turn her attention to brain activity associated with “envy up” groups. Ultimately, she plans to write a book on the social cognition and neuroscience of prejudice.