Abstract

In social dilemmas, negotiations, and other forms of strategic interaction, mind-reading—intuiting another party’s goals and intentions—has an important impact on an actor’s own behavior. In this paper, we present a model of how perceivers shift between social projection (using one’s own mental states to intuit a counterpart’s mental states) and stereotyping (using general assumptions about a group to intuit a counterpart’s mental states). Study 1 extends prior work on perceptual dilemmas in arms races, examining Americans’ perceptions of Chinese attitudes toward military escalation. Study 2 adapts a prisoner’s dilemma, pairing participants with outgroup targets. Study 3 employs an ultimatum game, asking male and female participants to make judgments about opposite sex partners. Study 4 manipulates perceived similarity as well as counterpart stereotype in a principal-agent context. Across the studies, we find evidence for main effects of both stereotyping and projection and support for our central prediction: heightened levels of perceived similarity are associated with increased projection and reduced stereotyping. 

Authors
Daniel Ames, Elke Weber, and Xi Zou
Format
Working Paper
Publication Date

Full Citation

Ames, Daniel, Elke Weber, and Xi Zou
. Mind-reading in strategic interaction: The impact of perceived similarity on projection and stereotyping. January 31, 2011.