Abstract
The purposes of the present study were to examine whether the process underlying social-category applicability effect (Banaji, Hardin, & Rothman, 1993) was automatic, and to investigate the effects of need for cognition and sex-role stereotype on the process. Forty-eight female undergraduates were exposed to dependency-related or neutral primes that were subliminally or supraliminally presented, and subsequently rated a hypothetical target who was male, female, or neutral. Main findings were: a) Subjects exposed to dependency-related primes rated the male target more dependent than the female, while the opposite was true for those exposed to neutral ones. This result contradicted Banaji et al.'s. b) The result was found regardless of whether primes were subliminal or supraliminal. c) The effect was more pronounced for subjects with strong need for cognition, and those with negative attitudes toward traditional gender roles. Based on the results, it is argued that the process is indeed automatic, and that difference in subjects' sex-role stereotypes of the two studies most probably accounts for the contradictory findings.
