When do we believe stereotypes? the role of the illusion of truth in stereotyping processes

The illusion of truth is the increase in belief in a piece of information when it is repeated. The present thesis focused on investigating the role of the illusion of truth on stereotyping processes. Considering the fact that people are frequently exposed to stereotypes in everyday life, the main purpose of the thesis is to identify the possible increase in the belief in stereotypes with an exposure to those stereotypes. After reviewing the research on the truth effect and relevant theoretical explanations in the first chapter, various approaches to stereotypes including social identity theory which constructed the framework of the present thesis are encapsulated. In the second, third, fourth and fifth chapters, in the context of minimal group paradigm the effect of repetition, valance and group on truth evaluations are investigated through two pilot and four main experiments. After being allocated to arbitrary groups in the first phase of the experiements, participants are exposed stereotypical statements. Next, they are asked to evaluate these statements along with other new statements. In the first experiment, they receive a feedback only on their group information. In the second and third experiements, they receive a feedback on their membership of a minority group and a majority group respectively. In the fourth experiment, participants are asked to make confidence ratings on their truth evaluations to be able to scrutinize the relationship between metacognitive monitoring and truth effect. Overall, despite no common background, in all four experiements individuals believe repeated stereotypes more than non-repeated stereotypes and they believe positive stereotypes more than negative ones. Furthermore, they favour their in-group compared to their out-group in all experiements. In the final chapter, these findings are discussed in accordance with the relevant literature.