How Disability Stereotypes Shape Memory for Personal Attributes

Abstract. Two experiments examined effects of including an information about a disability in a person description on memory about that person’s traits. In Experiment 1, this information impaired correct recognition of traits of a person that had been described in correspondence to gender stereotypes. In Experiment 2, it induced false memories in accordance with stereotypes about people with disabilities. Participants’ false alarms for traits belonging to the dimension of warmth increased, whereas false alarms for traits belonging to the dimension of competence decreased. Thus, activating stereotypes through a disability prime influenced what could be recognized correctly or falsely was assumed to be recognized about a person.