The role of cognitive styles in social perception of the specified and impersonal other

The paper studies the contributions of cognitive styles to the process of stereotyping and perceptual bias (ingroup favoritism). It was suggested that the role of cognitive styles weakens in conditions of the object’s perceptual clarity and amplifies in conditions of his/her perceptual nebulosity. In the experiment, the level of perceptual clarity appeared as an independent variable and was set using different stimulus objects. Low perceptual clarity was presented by a description of fictional groups of people sensitive to low or high frequency sounds. Medium perceptual clarity was characterized by a description of recognizable (typical) groups of people who preferred «low-status» or «high-status» things. The level of high clarity was set by visual presentation of a specific person allegedly being a representative of the group sensitive to low or high frequency sounds. At the level of low and medium perceptual clarity, the Other was not presented visually. The study involved 305 students aged 17 to 22 (M = 19,21, SD = 0,97), 71 male and 234 female. It was found that cognitive styles were the most reliable predictors for stereotyping of the Other when his/her image was as depersonalized as possible, i.e. devoid of typological and visual certainty. The highest values of stereotyping were observed upon pronounced rigidity, field-dependence, impulsivity and cognitive simplicity. When a specified, visually defined Other was perceived, cognitive styles did not affect the stereotyping. Perceptual bias (ingroup favoritism) did not change under the influence of cognitive styles, regardless of the perceptual clarity level.