Two studies investigated the eects of cognitive busyness and group variability on participants' memory for stereotype-related information. In Study 1, participants formed an impression of an experimentally created group that was either homogeneous or heterogeneous in composition. While learning about the group, half of the participants were made cognitively busy, the others were not. The results supported our prediction that stereotypical eorts on memory are moderated by both the availability of processing resources and the variability of the target group under consideration. Under optimal processing circumstances, participants' recollections were dominated by the perceived variability of the group in question. That is, participants displayed preferential recall for stereotype-consistent information when they believed the group to be homogeneous in composition, but a tendency to recall more stereotype-inconsistent information when they considered the group to be heterogeneous in nature. Under suboptimal processing conditions, however, a dierent pattern emerged. Now, participants preferentially recalled stereotype-consistent information regardless of the perceived variability of the group. These results were largely replicated in Study 2 when the perceived variability of a real social group was manipulated. We consider the implications of these ยฎndings for contemporary theories of stereotyping. Copyright # 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
`Simon tried to put nationalities to faces, according to stereotype. The group of brawny, overtanned and over-jewelled men and women who had ordered Bordeaux rather than local wine should be Germanรprosperous, large and loud. Any table giving o a cloud of cigarette smoke should be French, just as a table of non-smokers, with more water than wine being drunk, should be Americans. The English loaded butter onto their bread and ordered the heaviest