Lay theory research on intergroup relations has rapidly grown over the past two decades. Drawing on articles in this Special Issue, we showcase the latest developments. First, we define lay theories, addressing the extent of overlap with scientific theories and differences among lay theories in terms of type of representation, level of articulation, frequency of activation and use, range of applicability, and degree of universality. Second, we describe advances in the understanding of the functions of lay theories. Third, we review the far-reaching implications of lay theories for group and intergroup processes. Fourth, we discuss the movement toward comparing and contrasting related lay theories. Taken together, these articles suggest the study of lay theories provides a fuller understanding of intergroup relations.
Abelson, R. P. (1986). Beliefs are like possessions . Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 16, 223–250 .
2.
Abelson, R. P. , Dasgupta, N. , Park, J. , & Banaji, M. (1998). Perceptions of the collective other . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 243–250 .
3.
Bastian, B. , & Haslam, N. (in press). Psychological essentialism and stereotype endorsement . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
4.
Biernat, M. , Vescio, T. K. , & Theno, S. A. (1996). Violating American values: A ‘value congruence’ approach to understanding outgroup attitudes . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 32, 387–410 .
5.
Brewer, M. B. , & Harasty, A. S. (1996). Seeing groups as entities: The role of perceiver motivation. In R. M. Sorrentino & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition(Vol. 3, pp. 347–370). New York: Guilford .
6.
Brewer, M. B. , Hong, Y. , & Li, Q. (2004). Dynamic entitativity: Perceiving groups as actors. In V. Yzerbyt , C. M. Judd , & O. Corneille (Eds.), The psychology of group perception: Perceived variability, entitativity, and essentialism(pp. 25–38). New York: Psychology Press .
7.
Castano, E. (2004). On the advantages of reifying the ingroup. In V. Yzerbyt , C. M. Judd , & O. Corneille (Eds.), The psychology of group perception: Perceived variability, entitativity, and essentialism (pp. 381–400). New York: Psychology Press .
8.
Castano, E. , Yzerbyt, V. , Paladino, M.-P. , & Sacchi, S. (2002). I belong, therefore, I exist: Ingroup identification, ingroup entitativity, and ingroup bias . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 135–143 .
9.
Chao, M. M., & Hong, Y. (2005). Navigating between mainstream and ethnic minority cultures: A dynamic constructivist approach to intercultural processes. Manuscript under review.
10.
Chiu, C-y. , Dweck, C. S. , Tong, J. Y. , & Fu, J. H. (1997). Implicit theories and conceptions of morality . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 923–940 .
11.
Chiu, C-y. , & Hong, Y. (1999). Social identification in a political transition: The role of implicit beliefs . International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 23, 297–318 .
12.
Chiu, C-y. , Hong, Y. , & Dweck, C. S. (1994). Toward an integrative model of personality and intelligence: A general framework and some preliminary steps. In R. J. Sternberg & P. Ruzgis (Eds.), Personality and intelligence(pp. 104–134). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press .
13.
Chiu, C-y. , Hong, Y. , & Dweck, C. (1997). Lay dispositionism and implicit theories of personality . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 19–30 .
14.
Chiu, C-y. , Morris, M. W. , Hong, Y. , & Menon, T. (2000). Motivated cultural cognition: The impact of implicit cultural theories on dispositional attribution varies as a function of need for closure . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 247–259 .
15.
Crandall, C. S. (1994). Prejudice against fat people: Ideology and self-interest . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 882–894 .
16.
Crandall, C. S. (2000). Ideology and ideologies of stigma: The justification of stigmatization. In T. F. Heatherton , R. E. Kleck , M. R. Hebl , & J. G. Hull (Eds.), The social psychology of stigma(pp. 126–150). New York: Guilford .
17.
Crandall, C. S. , & Martinez, R. (1996). Culture, ideology, and antifat attitudes . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 1165–1176 .
18.
Dasgupta, N. , Banaji, M. R. , & Abelson, R. P. (1999). Group entitativity and group perception: Associations between physical features and psychological judgment . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 991–1003 .
19.
Demoulin, S. , Leyens, J.-P. , & Yzerbyt, V. (2006). Lay theories of essentialism . Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 9, 25–42 .
20.
Denson, T. F. , Lickel, B. , Curtis, M. , Stenstrom, D. M. , & Ames, D. (2006). The roles of entitativity and essentiality in judgments of collective responsibility . Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 9, 43–61 .
21.
Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press .
22.
Dweck, C. S. , Chiu, C-y. , & Hong, Y. (1995a). Implicit theories and their role in judgments and reactions: A world from two perspectives . Psychological Inquiry, 6, 267–285 .
23.
Dweck, C. S. , Chiu, C-y. , & Hong, Y. (1995b). Implicit theories: Elaboration and extension of the model . Psychological Inquiry, 6, 322–333 .
24.
Dzuka, J. , & Dalbert, C. (2002). Mental health and personality of Slovak unemployed adolescents: The impact of belief in a just world . Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 732–757 .
25.
Eberhardt, J. , Dasgupta, N. , & Banaszynski, T. (2003). Believing is seeing: The effects of racial labels and implicit beliefs on face perception . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 360–370 .
26.
Fletcher, G. (1995). The scientific credibility of folk psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum .
27.
Furnham, A. (1988). Lay theories: Everyday understandings of problems in the social sciences. New York: Pergamon Press .
28.
Furnham, A. , & Rajamanickam, R. (1992). The Protestant work ethic and just world beliefs in Great Britain and India . International Journal of Psychology, 27, 401–416 .
29.
Gelman, S. A. (2003). The essential child: Origins of essentialism in everyday thought. London: Oxford University Press .
30.
Halloran, M. J. , & Kashima, E. S. (2004). Social identity and worldview validation: The effects of ingroup identity primes and mortality salience on value endorsement . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 915–925 .
31.
Hamilton, D. L. , & Sherman, S. J. (1996). Perceiving persons and groups . Psychological Review, 103, 336–355 .
32.
Haslam, N. , Bastian, B. , Bain, P. , & Kashima, Y. (2006). Psychological essentialism, implicit theories, and intergroup relations . Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 9, 63–76 .
33.
Haslam, N. , & Ernst, D. (2002). Essentialist beliefs about mental disorders . Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 21, 628–644 .
34.
Haslam, N. , & Levy, S. R. (in press). Essentialist beliefs about homosexuality: Structure and implications for prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
35.
Haslam, N. , Rothschild, L. , & Ernst, D. (2000). Essentialist beliefs about social categories . British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 113–127 .
36.
Haslam, N. , Rothschild, L. , & Ernst, D. (2002). Are essentialist beliefs associated with prejudice?British Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 87–100 .
37.
Haslam, N. , Rothschild, L. , & Ernst, D. (2004). Essentialism and entitativity: Structures of beliefs about the ontology of social categories. In V. Yzerbyt , C. M. Judd , & O. Corneille (Eds.), The psychology of group perception: Perceived variability, entitativity, and essentialism(pp. 61–100). New York: Psychology Press .
38.
Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley .
39.
Higgins, E. T. (1996). Knowledge activation: Accessibility, applicability and salience. In E. T. Higgins & A. E. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 133–168). New York: Guilford .
40.
Hirschfeld, L.A. (1995). Do children have a theory of race?Cognition, 54, 209–252 .
41.
Hogg, M. A. (2004). Social identity, selfcategorization, and communication in small groups. In S-h. Ng , C. N. Candlin , & C-y. Chiu (Eds.), Language matters: Communication, culture, and identity(pp. 221–243). Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press .
42.
Hong, Y. , Chiu, C-y. , Dweck, C. S. , & Sacks, R. (1997). Implicit theories and evaluative processes in person cognition . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 296–323 .
43.
Hong, Y. , Chiu, C-y. , Yeung, G. , & Tong, Y. Y. (1999). Social comparison during the political transition: Interaction of entity versus incremental beliefs and social identities . Journal of Intercultural Relations, 23, 257–279 .
44.
Hong, Y. , Coleman, J. , Chan, G. , Wong, R. Y. M. , Chiu, C. , & Hansen, I. et al. (2004). Predicting intergroup bias: The interactive effects of implicit theory and social identity . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1035–1047 .
45.
Hong, Y. , Levy, S. R. , & Chiu, C-y. (2001). The contribution of the lay theories approach to the study of groups . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 98–106 .
46.
Hunt, M. O. (2000). Status, religion, and the ‘belief in a just world’: Comparing African Americans, Latinos, and Whites . Social Science Quarterly, 81, 325–343 .
47.
Ip, G. W-m. , Chiu, C-y. , & Wan, C. (in press). Birds of a feather and birds flocking together: Physical versus behavioral cues may lead to trait-versus goal-based group perception . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
48.
Jayaratne, T. E. , Ybarra, O. , Sheldon, J. P. , Brown, T. N. , Feldbaum, M. , Pfeffer, C. A. et al. (2006). White Americans' genetic lay theories of race differences and sexual orientation: Their relationship with prejudice toward Blacks, and gay men and lesbians . Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 9, 77–94 .
49.
Jetten, J. , Postmes, T. , & Mcauliffe, B. (2002). ‘We're all individuals’: Group norms of individualism and collectivism, levels of identification and identity threat . European Journal of Social Psychology, 32, 189–207 .
50.
Jost, J. T. , & Burgess, D. (2000). Attitudinal ambivalence and the conflict between group and system justification motives in low status groups . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 293–305 .
51.
Jost, J. T. , & Major, B. (2001). The psychology of legitimacy: Emerging perspectives on ideology, justice, and intergroup relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press .
52.
Karafantis, D. M. , & Levy, S. R. (2004). The role of children's lay theories about the malleability of human attributes in beliefs about and volunteering for disadvantaged groups . Child Development, 75, 236–250 .
53.
Kashima, Y. (2000) Maintaining cultural stereotypes in the serial reproduction of narratives . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 594–604 .
54.
Kashima, Y. (2004). Culture, communication, and entitativity: A social psychological investigation of social reality. In V. Yzerbyt , C. M. Judd , & O. Corneille (Eds.), The psychology of group perception: Perceived variability, entitativity, and essentialism(pp. 257–273). New York: Psychology Press .
55.
Kashima, Y. , Kashima, E. , Chiu, C. , Farsides, T. , Gelfand, M. , Hong, Y. et al. (2005). Culture, essentialism, and agency: Are individuals universally believed to be more real entities than groups?European Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 147–169 .
56.
Katz, I. , & Hass, R. G. (1988). Racial ambivalence and American value conflict: Correlational and priming studies of dual cognitive structures . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 893–905 .
57.
Keller, J. (2005). In genes we trust: The biological component of psychological essentialism and its relationship to mechanisms of motivated social cognition . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 686–702 .
58.
Kelly, G. A. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton .
59.
Kluegel, J. R. , & Smith, E. R. (1986). Beliefs about inequality: Americans' views of what is and what ought to be. New York: Aldine De Gruyter .
60.
Knee, C. R. , Patrick, H. , & Lonsbary, C. (2003). Implicit theories of relationships: Orientations toward evaluation and cultivation . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 41–55 .
61.
Knowles, E. , Morris, M. W. , Chiu, C-y. , & Hong, Y. (2001). Culture and the process of person perception: Evidence for automaticity among East Asians in correcting for situational influences on behavior . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1344–1356 .
62.
Kruglanski, A. W. , Shah, J. Y. , Pierro, A. , & Mannetti, L. (2002). When similarity breeds content: Need for closure and the allure of homogeneous and self-resembling groups . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 648–662 .
63.
Lau, I. Y-M. , Chiu, C-y. , & Lee, S-L. (2001). Communication and shared reality: Implications for the psychological foundations of culture . Social Cognition, 19, 350–371 .
64.
Lau, I. , Lee, S-L. , & Chiu, C-y. (2004). Language, cognition and reality: Constructing shared meanings through communication. In M. Schaller & C. Crandall (Eds.), The psychological foundations of culture(pp. 77–100). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
65.
Lerner, M. J. (1970). The desire for justice and reactions to victims. In J. Macaulay & L. Berkowitz (Eds.), Altruism and helping behavior. New York: Academic Press .
66.
Levy, S. R. , & Dweck, C. S. (1999). The impact of children's static versus dynamic conceptions of people on stereotype formation . Child Development, 70, 1163–1180 .
67.
Levy, S. R. , Freitas, A. L. , & Salovey, P. (2002). Construing action abstractly and blurring social distinctions: Implications for perceiving homogeneity among, but also empathizing with and helping, others . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1224–1238 .
68.
Levy, S. R. , Plaks, J. , Hong, Y. , Chiu, C-y. , & Dweck, C. S. (2001). Static versus dynamic theories of groups: Different routes to different destinations . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 156–168 .
69.
Levy, S. R., Ramirez, L., & Vellila, E. (2005). The role of culture and context on the intergroup meaning of the Protestant work ethic. Unpublished manuscript. State University of New York at Stony Brook.
70.
Levy, S. R. , Stroessner, S. J. , & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Stereotype formation and endorsement: The role of implicit theories . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1421–1436 .
71.
Levy, S. R. , West, T. , & Ramirez, L. (in press). Lay theories and intergroup relations: A social-developmental perspective. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), The European review of social psychology.
72.
Levy, S. R. , West, T. L. , Ramirez, L. , & Karafantis, D. M. (2006). The Protestant work ethic: A lay theory with dual intergroup implications . Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 9, 95–115 .
73.
Leyens, J. Ph. , Rodriguez, A. P. , Rodriguez, R. T. , Gaunt, R. , Paladino, P. M. , Vaes, J. et al. (2001). Psychological essentialism and the differential attribution of uniquely human emotions to ingroups and outgroups . European Journal of Social Psychology, 31, 395–411 .
74.
Lickel, B. , Hamilton, D. L. , & Sherman, S. J. (2001). Elements of a lay theory of groups: Types of groups, relational styles, and the perception of group entitativity . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 129–140 .
75.
Lickel, B. , Hamilton, D. L. , Wieczorkowska, G. , Lewis A. , Sherman, S. J. , and Uhles, N. (2000). Varieties of groups and the perception of group entitativity . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 223–246 .
76.
Lickel, B. , Schmader, T. , Curtis, M , Scarnier, M. , & Ames, D. R. (2005) Vicarious shame and guilt . Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 8, 145–157 .
77.
Lickel, B. , Schmader, T. , & Hamilton, D. L. (2003). A case of collective responsibility: Who else was to blame for the Columbine High School shootings?Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 194–204 .
78.
Lied, T. R. , & Pritchard, R. D. (1976). Relationships between personality variables and components of the expectancy-valence model . Journal of Applied Psychology, 61, 463–467 .
79.
Mahalingam, R. , & Rodriguez, J. (2003). Essentialism, power and cultural psychology of gender . Journal of Cognition & Culture, 3, 157–174 .
80.
McConnell, A. R. , Sherman, S. J. , & Hamilton, D. L. (1997). Target entitativity: Implications for information processing about individual and group targets . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 750–762 .
81.
McGarty, C. , Haslam, S. A. , Hutchinson, K. , & Grace, D. M. (1995). Determinants of perceived consistency: The relationship between group entitativity and the meaningfulness of categories . British Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 237–256 .
82.
McGarty, C. , Yzerbyt, Y. , & Spears, R. (Eds.) (2002). The formation of social stereotypes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press .
83.
Menon, T. , Morris, M. , Chiu, C-y. , & Hong, Y. (1999). Culture and attributions to individuals versus groups: North Americans attribute to personal dispositions; East Asians attribute to the dispositions of social collectives . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 701–717 .
84.
Montada, L. (1998). Belief in a just world: A hybrid of justice, motive and self-interest. In L. Montada , & M. Lerner (Eds.), Responses to victimizations and belief in the just world(pp. 217–245). New York: Plenum .
85.
Morris, M. W. , Menon, T. , & Ames, D. R. (2001). Culturally conferred conceptions of agency: A key to social perception of persons, groups, and other actors . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 169–182 .
86.
Nisbett, R. E. , & Wilson T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes . Psychological Review, 84, 231–259 .
87.
No, S., & Hong, Y. (2005). Lay theory of race moderates cultural frame switching for mainstream culture primes among ethnic minority biculturals. Unpublished manuscript, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
88.
Paladino, M-P. , Vaes, J. , Castano, E. , Demoulin, S. , & Leyens, J-P. (in press). Emotional infra-humanization in intergroup relations: The role of national identification in the attribution of primary and secondary emotions to Italians and Germans. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive.
89.
Piaget, J., & Garcia, R. (1983/1989). Psychogenesis and the history of the sciences. (H. Fielder, Trans.) Paris: Flamarion. (Original work published 1983.)
90.
Pickett, C. L. (2001). The effects of entitativity beliefs on implicit comparisons between group members . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 515–525 .
91.
Pickett, C. L. , Bonner, B. L. , & Coleman, J. M. (2002). Motivated self-stereotyping: Heightened assimilation and differentiation needs result in increased levels of positive and negative self-stereotyping . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 543–562 .
92.
Plaks, J. E. , Grant, H. , & Dweck, C. S. (2005). Violations of implicit theories and the sense of prediction and control: Implications for motivated person perception . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology88, 245–262 .
93.
Plaks, J. E. , Stroessner, S. J. , Dweck, C. S. , & Sherman, J. (2000). Person theories and attention allocation: Preferences for stereotypic versus counter stereotypic information . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology80, 876–893 .
94.
Pratto, F. , Sidanius, J. , Stallworth, L. M. , & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 741–763 .
95.
Quinn, D. M. , & Crocker, J. (1999). When ideology hurts: Effects of belief in the Protestant ethic and feeling overweight on the psychological well-being of women . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 402–414 .
96.
Richeson, J. A. , & Nussbaum, R. J. (2004). The impact of multiculturalism versus color-blindness on racial bias . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 417–423 .
97.
Ross, M. (1989). The relation of implicit theories to the construction of personal histories . Psychological Review, 96, 341–357 .
98.
Rothbart, M. , & Taylor, M. (1992). Category labels and social reality: Do we view social categories as natural kinds? In G. R. Semin & K. Fiedler (Eds.), Language and social cognition(pp. 11–36). London: Sage .
99.
Rydell, R. J. , & McConnell, A. R. (2005). Perceptions of entitativity and attitude change . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 99–110 .
100.
Sechrist, G. B. , & Stangor, C. (2001). Perceived consensus influences intergroup behavior and stereotype accessibility . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 645–654 .
101.
Sidanius, J. , & Pratto, F. (1999). Social dominance: An intergroup theory of social hierarchy and oppression. New York: Cambridge University Press .
102.
Somerman, F. B. (1993). Value, attitude, and belief determinants of willingness to accept a facility for the homeless . Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, 2, 177–192 .
103.
Sommers, S. R. , & Norton, M. I. (2006). Lay theories about white racists: What constitutes racism (and what doesn't) . Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 9, 117–138 .
104.
Stevens, L. E. , & Fiske, S. T. (1995). Motivation and cognition in social life: A social survival perspective . Social Cognition, 13, 189–214 .
105.
Su, S. K. , Chiu, C-y. , Hong, Y. , Leung, K. , Peng, K. , & Morris, M. W. (1999). Self organization and social organization: American and Chinese constructions. In T. R. Tyler , R. Kramer , & O. John (Eds.), The psychology of the social self(pp. 193–222). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
106.
Tong, Y. , & Chiu, C-y. (2002). Implicit theories and evaluation-based organization of impressions: An application of the memory search paradigm . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1518–1527 .
107.
Weber, M. (1904–1905/1958). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. (T. Parsons, Trans.). New York: Scribner's .
108.
Wegener, D. T. , & Petty, R. E. (1998). The naive scientist revisited: Naive theories and social judgment . Social Cognition, 16, 1–7 .
109.
Wyer, R. S. (2004). The role of situation models, narratives and implicit theories. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
110.
Yzerbyt, V. , Corneille, O. , & Estrada, C. (2001). The interplay of subjective essentialism and entitativity in the formation of stereotypes . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 141–155 .
111.
Yzerbyt, V. , Judd, C. M. , & Corneille, O. (Eds.) (2004). The psychology of group perception: Perceived homogeneity, entitativity, and essentialism. New York: Psychology Press .
112.
Yzerbyt, V. , Rocher, S. , & Schadron, G. (1997). Stereotypes as explanations: A subjective essentialistic view of group perception. In R. Spears , P. J. Oakes , N. Ellemers , & S. A. Haslam (Eds.), The social psychology of stereotyping and group life(pp. 20–50). Oxford: Basil Blackwell .
113.
Yzerbyt, V. , Rogier, A. , & Fiske, S. T. (1998). Group entitativity and social attribution: On translating situational constraints into stereotypes . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1089–1103 .
