ACCURACY OF SLOVAK NATIONAL STEREOTYPES: RESULT OF JUDGMENT OR INTUITION?

An international study comprising 3230 university students from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Poland examined the accuracy of Slovak national stereotypes. The accuracy of stereotypes was evaluated comparing ratings of typical Slovaks from the ingroup as well as outgroup perspective with ratings of real people living in Slovakia. We found that Slovak national stereotypes rated by Slovaks did not correspond with ratings of real Slovaks. The ratings of real Slovaks corresponded more with the ratings of Slovak national stereotypes by members of other Central European countries. Our findings indicate that national stereotypes can be based upon reflective judgment of real people living in the given nation. At the same time, ratings of group characteristics can be biased by other motivations, e.g. the tendency to evaluate one’s own group more favorably than outgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]