Disentangling stereotype and person effects: Do social stereotypes bias observer judgment of personality?

To what extent are observer judgments biased by social stereotypes? We calculated the relative contributions of stereotype and individuating information to personality judgment. Participants read several instant messaging conversations and rated the partners on trait scales. In the combined information condition, participants received individuating information from the conversation and stereotype information in the form of systematically varied gender-by-ethnic group labels. In the category information condition, participants rated “typical” members of each group, and in the transcript information condition, participants rated conversation partners without label. Person effects accounted for the majority of explained variance, and gender, but not ethnic, labels significantly affected the ratings. When abundant individuating information was available, the force of stereotypes, though not entirely eliminated, was significantly reduced.