UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1280

Overall Research Project Description When’s the last time you walked past a group of people? How were they behaving? Did you recognize the individual characteristics that made up the group or consider their similarities and differences from yourself? According to research, we as perceivers form first impressions of groups based on many of the observations listed above. This project aims to explore first impressions of groups, particularly we aim to examine the role that group characteristics play in formation of spontaneous trait inferences (STIs). STIs are the trait implications that we spontaneously and unintentionally make while observing others' behaviors, and these trait inferences tend to be strongly related to the initial impressions that we form and maintain about others. Our research project will address spontaneous trait inferences of groups (STIGs) by assessing participants' perception of groups as a single, cohesive entity when the racial categories and group membership characteristics of the target groups are present. Participation in this project will enhance your knowledge of perceiving others, how stereotypes form, and entitativity in social psychology, which refers to the degree to which a group of individuals are perceived as a collective whole. If you are interested in identifying and learning psychological concepts that relate to forming impressions about others, this is the perfect project for you!