Resumen de When Metaperceptions are Affected by Intergroup Processes

Elena Méndez, Ángel Gómez Jiménez, Linda R. Tropp

• The present study examines how metaperceptions can be affected by intergroup processes. Our main goal was to investigate how our expectations for how others see us are affected by the valence of the perception we believe outgroup members have of our group and the extent to which we perceive ourselves to be prototypical members of our group. 800 psychology students indicated how they thought outgroup members perceived their ingroup (metaperception of ingroup) and their self-reported level of prototypicality, in order to test the effects of these variables on how participants expected to be perceived by outgroup members (metaperception of self), their feelings of intergroup anxiety, their interest in contact with the outgroup, and the extent to which they believed outgroup members were interested in contact with them. Participants¿ metaperceptions were predicted by beliefs about outgroup members¿ perceptions of their groups, and particularly for those who considered themselves to be prototypical members of their ingroup. Generally, while participants low in prototypicality were not strongly affected by the valence of ingroup metaperceptions, participants high in prototypicality reported more negative metaperceptions about the self, greater intergroup anxiety, less interest in contact with the outgroup, and less perceived interest in contact by the outgroup when ingroup metaperceptions were negative as compared to positive.