Active search for information: The effects of subjectively experienced control on stereotyping

(from the book) Investigates the subjective experience of control and how this experience moderates the impact of sterotypic vs individuating information in social judgment. In the 1st section of this chapter, the authors review the literature on control. It is proposed that control might be conceived as a kind of subjective experience, that is, a cognitive assessment that is about the cognitions of the self. It is also suggested that giving people control over the course of an event could change the perception of the event. In the 2nd section, an overview of work on stereotype change is provided. The authors argue that the research on stereotyping has misrepresented the social thinker. In the 3rd section, the authors test the idea that perceived control over the impression formation leads people to assign different weights to the stereotypic information on the one hand and the individuating information on the other. Evidence is presented showing that the mode of information acquisition (active vs passive; i.e., controlled or not controlled) makes a difference as far as the relative impact of both kinds of data is concerned. In the final section, the authors examine the mechanisms that could account for the influence of the perceived control over the information-gathering episode