Stereotype Transmission and Maintenance Through Interpersonal Communication : The Irony Bias The Irony Bias

Gespeichert in:

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Beteiligte: Burgers, Christian, Beukeboom, Camiel J.
In: Communication Research, 43, 2016, 3, S. 414-441
veröffentlicht:
SAGE Publications
Medientyp: Artikel, E-Artikel

Nicht angemeldet

weitere Informationen
Umfang: 414-441
ISSN: 0093-6502
1552-3810
DOI: 10.1177/0093650214534975
veröffentlicht in: Communication Research
Sprache: Englisch
Schlagwörter:
Kollektion: SAGE Publications (CrossRef)
Inhaltsangabe

<jats:p> In interpersonal communication, stereotypes are predominantly transmitted through language. Linguistic bias theory presupposes that speakers systematically vary their language when communicating stereotype-consistent and stereotype-inconsistent information. We investigate whether these findings can be extended to verbal irony use. The irony bias posits that irony is more appropriate to communicate stereotype-inconsistent than stereotype-consistent information. Three experiments support this hypothesis by showing that irony is found more appropriate (Experiments 1-2) and used more often (Experiment 3) in stereotype-inconsistent than in stereotype-consistent situations. Furthermore, linguistic biases have important communicative consequences, because they implicitly serve to maintain stereotypic expectancies. Experiment 4 shows that irony shares this characteristic with other linguistic biases, in that irony—compared to literal language—leads to more external attribution. Taken together, these results indicate that stereotypic expectancies are subtly revealed and confirmed by verbal irony, and that verbal irony plays an important role in stereotype communication and maintenance. </jats:p>