Concept and content
Vorauer and colleagues (1998) showed that White Canadian participants held a clear meta-stereotype of how Aboriginal Canadians see White people: as prejudiced, arrogant and materialistic. When anticipating meeting an outgroup member, this meta-stereotype came to mind more strongly, and participants worried that the other person would see them in its terms. Vorauer and colleagues (2000) used indirect measures to confirm that such evaluative concerns are automatically activated in intergroup interaction. Frey and Tropp (2006) concluded that people are especially sensitive to whether others see them as individuals or as members of a group.
Effects on interaction and contact
Negative meta-stereotypes raise intergroup anxiety and make interactions awkward. Shelton and Richeson (2005) showed that both White and Black students wanted to become friends with members of the other group, but explained their own failure to reach out by fear of rejection while interpreting the other group's failure to reach out as lack of interest. Because of this pluralistic ignorance, contact both sides want does not occur. Shelton and colleagues (2006) concluded that identity threat, the possibility of being seen as prejudiced or through a stereotype, changes the behavior of both parties in intergroup encounters.
Metadehumanization and political polarization
Kteily and colleagues (2016) showed across groups including Americans and Muslims that metadehumanization, believing the other group sees us as less than human, leads to dehumanizing them in return, which fuels support for violence and hostility. Moore-Berg and colleagues (2020) showed that American Democrats and Republicans greatly overestimate how much the other party dislikes and dehumanizes their own, and that these exaggerated meta-perceptions predict hostility toward the other side. These studies suggest that simply conveying the other side's actual views may reduce affective polarization.
FAQ
- What are meta-stereotypes in simple terms?
- Beliefs about how the other group sees your group: "they probably think we're like this."
- Why are they a problem?
- Believing the other side sees you badly leads to avoiding contact, and exaggerated beliefs produce more hostility and conflict than actually warranted.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Vorauer, J. D., Main, K. J., & O'Connell, G. B. (1998). How do individuals expect to be viewed by members of lower status groups? Content and implications of meta-stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(4), 917–937. The foundational study of meta-stereotypes.
- Vorauer, J. D., Hunter, A. J., Main, K. J., & Roy, S. A. (2000). Meta-stereotype activation: Evidence from indirect measures for specific evaluative concerns experienced by members of dominant groups in intergroup interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(4), 690–707. Meta-stereotypes are activated in intergroup interaction.
- Shelton, J. N., & Richeson, J. A. (2005). Intergroup contact and pluralistic ignorance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(1), 91–107. Pluralistic ignorance about interest in contact.
- Frey, F. E., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). Being seen as individuals versus as group members: Extending research on metaperception to intergroup contexts. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(3), 265–280. A review of metaperception in intergroup contexts.
- Kteily, N., Hodson, G., & Bruneau, E. (2016). They see us as less than human: Metadehumanization predicts intergroup conflict via reciprocal dehumanization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(3), 343–370. Metadehumanization fuels reciprocal dehumanization.
- Moore-Berg, S. L., Ankori-Karlinsky, L.-O., Hameiri, B., & Bruneau, E. (2020). Exaggerated meta-perceptions predict intergroup hostility between American political partisans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(26), 14864–14872. Partisans overestimate the other side's hostility.
- Shelton, J. N., Richeson, J. A., & Vorauer, J. D. (2006). Threatened identities and interethnic interactions. European Review of Social Psychology, 17(1), 321–358. A review of identity threat in interethnic interactions.